See also: 1867 in music, other events of 1868, 1869 in music and the list of 'years in music'.

Events

• Modest Mussorgsky begins work on Boris Godunov, which is completed six years later
• Johannes Brahms completes his orchestral and choral work, Ein deutsches Requiem (Opus 25)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 ("Winter Dreams") is first performed in Moscow (February 3)
• Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger debuts in Munich's Hoftheater (June 21)

Published popular music

• "Come Back To Erin" by Claribel
• "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" w. J.E. Carpenter m. W.T. Wrighton
• "I Cannot Sing The Old Songs"      w.m. Claribel (Charlotte Alington [Mrs. Charles Barnard])
• "Little Footsteps" w. Michael Bennett Leavitt m. James A. Barney
• "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" by George Leybourne, Gaston Lyle, & Alfred Lee (first published the previous year)
• "Sweet Bye and Bye" w. S. Fillmore m. Joseph P. Webster
• "Walking In The Zoo" w. Hugh Willoughby Sweny m. Alfred Lee
• "The Whispering Hope" by Septimus Winner
• "The Widow In The Cottage By The Sea"     w.m. Charles A. White
• "Yield Not To Temptation" w.m. Horatio R. Palmer

Classical music

• Song Without Words m. Peter Tchaikovsky

Births

• January 26 - Juventino Rosas, composer, band leader
• April 19 - Max von Schillings, composer, conductor
• August 7 - Granville Bantock, composer
• August 21 - Vess Ossman, ragtime banjo artist
• November 24 - Scott Joplin, US composer and pianist

Deaths

• November 13 - Gioacchino Rossini, composer