This article is about music-related events in 1872.

• May 29 – Franz Liszt's oratorio 'Christus (Liszt)' (composed 1862-"66) premiered in the Protestant church at Weimar.
• June 5 – closure of the Teatro Re following its final performance, Rossini's The Barber of Seville
• June 24 – Karl Müller-Hartung founds an "Orchesterschule" ("Orchestra School") at Weimar.
  • – first performance in England of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 3 at a Philharmonic Society concert.
• Friedrich Nietzsche takes up musical composition again after a long break.
• Tomás Bretón and Ruperto Chapí receive the first prize of the Madrid Conservatory.
• Anton Rubinstein begins a tour of the United States at the behest of Steinway and Sons.
• Richard Wagner completes the full draft of Götterdämmerung.

• "The Gospel Train" by Fisk Jubilee Singers
• "Moonlight on the Potomac" by John Philip Sousa
• "Waste Not, Want Not [You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry]" by Harry Linn & Rollin Howard
• "Only a Dream" by George Cooper & William Vincent Wallace
• "Under the silvery stars," words by Arthur W. French, music by William A. Huntley^[1]

• Georges Bizet – L'Arlésienne Suite No. 1 from the incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play of the same name
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 2
• Joseph Callaerts – Grande fantaisie de concert, Op.5
• Antonín Dvořák – Piano Quintet No. 1
• César Franck – Veni creator
• Charles Gounod - Funeral March of a Marionette
• Franz Paul Lachner -Octet for winds, Op. 156
• Franz Liszt - Sunt lacrymae rerum
• Modest Mussorgsky – The Nursery
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Cello Concerto No. 1
  • Cello Sonata No. 1
• Johan Svendsen – Carnival in Paris, Op.9
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 2
• Charles-Marie Widor – Organ Symphony No.4, Op.13 No.4
• August Winding - Three Fantasy Pieces, for clarinet or violin and piano, Op. 19

• Georges Bizet – Djamileh
• Gialdino Gialdini – La secchia rapita premiered at the Teatro Goldoni, Florence
• Alexandre Charles Lecocq – Les cent vierges
• Miguel Marqués – Justos por pecadores
• Karel Miry
  • De dichter en zijn droombeeld (opera in 4 acts, libretto by Hendrik Conscience, premiered on December 2 in Brussels)
  • De twee zusters (opera in 1 act, libretto by P. Geiregat, premiered in Brussels)
• Modest Mussorgsky – Boris Gudonov, Revised Version
• Jacques Offenbach – Fantasio
• Camille Saint-Saëns – La princesse jaune, Op. 30

• La fille de Madame Angot, Brussels production
• La Vie parisienne, London production

• Richard Wagner – Über die Benennung "Musikdrama"

• January 1 – Hermine Finck, opera singer (d. 1932)
• January 6 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)
• January 11 – Paul Graener, conductor and composer (d. 1944)
• January 16 – Henri Büsser, conductor and composer (d. 1973)
• January 23 – Adelina de Lara, pianist and composer (d. 1961)
• March 6 – Ben Harney, ragtime pianist and songwriter (d. 1938)
• March 7 – Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov, Russian composer
• March 8 – Paul Juon, Russian-Swiss violinist and composer (d. 1940)
• March 10 – Felix Borowski, composer and music teacher (d. 1956)
• March 19 – Sergei Diaghilev, choreographer (d. 1929)
• March 20 – Bernhard Sekles, composer and music teacher (d. 1934)
• March 30 – Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko, composer (d. 1956)
• April 1 – Tadeusz Joteyko, composer
• April 29 – Eyvind Alnæs, composer (d. 1932)
• May 1 – Hugo Alfvén, composer (d. 1960)
• June 22 – Clara Mathilda Faisst, pianist (died 1948)
• July 7 – Juan Lamote de Grignon pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1949)
• July 8 – Harry Von Tilzer, songwriter (d. 1946)
• July 18 – Julius Fučík, composer (d. 1916)
• July 20 – Déodat de Séverac, composer (d. 1921)
• August 10 – Bill Johnson, dixieland jazz double-bassist (d. 1972)
• August 15
  • Harold Fraser-Simson, composer and songwriter (d. 1944)
  • Rubin Goldmark, composer (d. 1936)
• September 9 – Josef Stránský, conductor (died 1936)
• October 12 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer (d. 1958)
• November 29 – Anna von Mildenburg, Austrian soprano (d. 1947)
• December 17 – Walter Loving, military bandleader (k. 1945)
• December 20 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (d. 1956)

• January 20 – Raffaele Sacco, lyricist (b. 1787)
• February 16 – Henry Fothergill Chorley, music critic (b. 1808)
• March 22 – Karolina Bock, singer, dancer and actress (b. 1792)
• March 23? - Hugo Ulrich, composer, teacher and arranger (b. 1827) (poss. born May 23)
• April 3 – Henriette Widerberg, operatic soprano (b. 1796)
• April 12 – Nikolaos Mantzaros, composer (b. 1795)
• May 5 – Johann Kulik, luthier (b. 1800)
• May 9 – Viktorin Hallmayer, conductor and composer (b. 1831)
• May 15 – Thomas Hastings, composer of hymns (b. 1784)
• July 26 – Michele Carafa, opera composer (b. 1787)
• August 4 – Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, conductor and composer (b. 1802)
• August 11 – Lowell Mason, organist and composer (b. 1792)
• September 16 – Gall Morel, choirmaster (b. 1803)
• November 21
  • Myllarguten, folk musician (b. 1801)
  • Emile Steinkühler, composer (born 1824)
• November 29 – Giovanni Tadolini, composer