Events in the year 1898 in music.

• 1898 in Norwegian music

• Otilie Dvořáková, daughter of Antonín Dvořák, marries her father's pupil, composer Josef Suk.
• Dame Marie Tempest marries the actor-playwright Cosmo Stuart, grandson of the Duke of Richmond.

• "Because" w. Charles Horwitz m. Frederick V. Bowers
• "The Boy Guessed Right" w.m. Lionel Monckton
• "Ciribiribin" w. Carlo Tiochet m. Alberto Pestalozza
• "Gold Will Buy Most Anything But A True Girl's Heart" w. Charles E. Foreman m. Monroe H. Rosenfeld
• "Good-bye Dolly Gray" w. Will D. Cobb m. Paul Barnes
• "Goodnight, Little Girl, Goodnight" w. Julai M. Hays m. J. C. Macy
• "Gypsy Love Song" w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert from the musical The Fortune Teller
• "Honey on my Lips" Charles E. Trevathan
• "I Guess I'll Have To Telegraph My Baby" w.m. George M. Cohan
• "Just As The Sun Went Down" w. Karl Kennett m. Lyn Udall
• "Just One Girl" w. Karl Kennett m. Lyn Udall
• "Kiss Me Honey Do" w. Edgar Smith m. John Stromberg
• "The Lily Of Laguna" w.m. Leslie Stuart
• "'Mid The Green Fields Of Virginia" w.m. Charles K. Harris
• "Mister Johnson Don't Get Gay" w.m. Dave Reed Jr
• "The Moth And The Flame" w. George Taggart m. Max S. Witt
• "My Old New Hampshire Home" w. Andrew B. Sterling m. Harry Von Tilzer
• "Recessional" w. Rudyard Kipling m. Reginald De Koven
• "Romany Life" w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert
• "The Rosary" w. Robert Cameron Rogers m. Ethelbert Nevin
• "Salome" m. William Lorraine
• "She is the Belle of New York" w. Hugh Morton m. Gustave Kerker
• "She Was Bred In Old Kentucky" w. Harry Braisted m. Stanley Carter
• "Swipsy Cakewalk" (for piano) c. Scott Joplin
• "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" w.m. James Thornton
• "Who Dat Say Chicken In Dis Crowd" w. Paul Lawrence Dunbar m. Will Marion

• "The Amorous Goldfish" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones)
  – Syria Lamonte on Berliner Gramophone
• "At A Georgia Camp Meeting" (w.m. Kerry Mills)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
  – Dan W. Quinn on Columbia Records
• "The Battle Cry Of Freedom" (w.m. George Frederick Root)
  – John Terrell on Berliner Gramophone
• "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (w. Thomas Moore m. trad)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner Gramophone
• "Break The News To Mother" (w.m. Charles K. Harris)
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison Records
• "Chin, Chin, Chinaman" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones)
  – James T. Powers on Berliner Gramophone
• "Cotton Blossoms" (m. M. H. Hall)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
• "Don Jose Of Sevilla" (Smith, Herbert)
  – Jessie Bartlett Davis & W. H. MacDonald on Berliner Gramophone
• "Happy Days In Dixie" (m. Kerry Mills)
  – Arthur Collins on Edison Records
• "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls" (w. Thomas Moore m. trad)
  – J. W. Myers on Berliner Gramophone
• "A Hot Time In The Old Town" (w. Joe Hayden m. Theodore A. Metz)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
  - Len Spencer with banjo Vess L. Ossman on Columbia Records
  – Roger Harding on Edison Records
• "In The Gloaming" (w. Meta Orred m. Annie Fortescue Harrison)
  – Roger Harding on Berliner Gramophone
• "I'se Gwine Back To Dixie" (w.m. C. A. White)
  – Edison Male Quartette on Edison Records
• "Just Before The Battle, Mother" (w.m. George Frederick Root)
  – Frank C. Stanley on Edison Records
• "Killarney" (w. Edmund Falconer m. Michael William Balfe)
  – Arthur Gladstone on Berliner Gramophone
• "Largo Al Factotum" (w. Cesare Sterbini m. Giaocchino Rossini)
  – Alberto Del Campo on Berliner Gramophone
• "Love's Old Sweet Song" (w. George Clifton Bingham m. James Lyman Molloy)
  – Annie Carter on Berliner Gramophone
• "The Miner's Dream Of Home" (w.m. Will Godwin & Leo Dryden)
  – Leo Dryden on Berliner Gramophone
• "Mister Johnson Don't Get Gay" (w.m. Dave Reed Jr)
  – Press Eldridge on Edison Records
• "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (w.m. Ben Harney)
  – Marguerite Newton on Edison Records
  – Len Spencer with Vess L. Ossman on Columbia Records
• "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (w. m. Stephen Collins Foster)
  – Diamond Four on Berliner Gramophone
  – Edison Male Quartette on Edison Records
• "Oh, Promise Me" (w. Clement Scott m. Reginald DeKoven)
  – Jessie Bartlett Davis on Berliner Gramophone
• "Old Folks At Home" (w. m. Stephen Collins Foster)
  – Diamond Four on Berliner Gramophone
• "On The Banks Of The Wabash Far Away" (w.m. Paul Dresser)
  – Annie Carter on Berliner Gramophone
• "Orange Blossoms" (m. Arthur Pryor)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
• "The Palms" (m. Gabriel Fauré)
  – Diamond Four on Berliner Gramophone
• "Rocked In The Cradle Of The Deep" (w. Mrs Emma Hart Willard m. Joseph Phillip Knight)
  – William Hooley on Edison Records
• "She Never Did the Same Thing Twice"
  – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner Gramophone
• "She Was Bred In Old Kentucky" (w. Harry Braisted m. Stanley Carter)
  – Albert C. Campbell on Edison Records
• "She was Happy Til She Met You"
  – Dan W. Quinn on Columbia Records
• "Smoky Mokes" (m. Abe Holzmann)
  – banjo Vess L. Ossman on Columbia Records
• "Stars And Stripes Forever" (m. John Philip Sousa)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
• "Sweet And Low" (w. Alfred, Lord Tennyson m. Sir Joseph Barnby)
  – Ladies Brass Quartette of Boston Fadettes on Berliner Gramophone
• "Sweet Genevieve" (w. George Cooper m. Henry Tucker)
  – Jessie Bartlett Davis on Berliner Gramophone
• "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (w.m. Maude Nugent)
  – Steve Porter on Berliner Gramophone
• "The Sweetest Story Ever Told" (w.m. R. M. Stults)
  – Diamond Four on Berliner Gramophone
  – George J. Gaskin on Edison Records
• "Then You'll Remember Me" (w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe)
  – James Norrie on Berliner Gramophone
  - Annie Carter on Berliner Gramophone
• "There's A Little Star Shining For You" (w.m. James Thornton)
  – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
• "The Thunderer" (m. John Philip Sousa)
  – Sousa's Band on Berliner Gramophone
• "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (w.m. George Frederick Root)
  – Frank C. Stanley on Edison Records
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (w.m. Louis Lambert)
  – Frank C. Stanley on Edison Records
• "Yankee Doodle" (trad)
  – Frank C. Stanley on Edison Records

• Ernest Chausson – String Quartet (completed posthumously)
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
  • Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, Op.30
  • Ballade, Op.33 (premiered September 12 in Gloucester)
  • African Suite for piano, Op.35
• Edward Elgar – Caractacus
• George Enescu
  • Trois melodies sur poèmes de Jules Lemaitre et Sully Prudhomme, for bass and piano, Op. 4
  • Variations for Two Pianos on an Original Theme in A♭ major, for piano, Op. 5
  • Sonata in F minor, for cello and piano, Op. 26, No. 1
• Gabriel Fauré
  • Fantaisie, Op. 79
  • Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80
• Alexander Glazunov – Ruses d'Amour (ballet)
• Paul Juon – Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 1 in A major
• Carl Nielsen – String Quartet No. 3 in E flat major
• Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
• Henrique Oswald
  • Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 21
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 26
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Barcarolle in F major
• Christian Sinding – Concerto for Violin in A major^[1]

• Antônio Francisco Braga – Jupyra
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – The Gitanos
• Umberto Giordano – Fedora
• Ivar Hallstrom – Little Karin
• Pietro Mascagni – Iris
• Emile Pessard – La dame de trèfle premiered on May 13 at the Bouffes-Parisiens, Salle Choiseul, Paris
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
  • Boyarinya Vera Sheloga
  • Sadko, premiered January 7 at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow.

• The Belle of New York London production
• The Bride Elect Broadway production
• The Fortune Teller Toronto and London productions
• A Greek Slave London production
• Hurly-Burly Broadway production
• A Runaway Girl London and Broadway productions
• The Skirt Dancer London production
• Véronique (operetta) (André Messager) – Paris production

• January 7 – Al Bowlly, big band singer
• January 9 – Gracie Fields, singer and actress
• January 28 – Vittorio Rieti, composer
• February 3 – Lil Hardin Armstrong, wife and musical collaborator of Louis Armstrong
• February 7 – Dock Boggs, banjo player
• February 12 – Roy Harris, composer
• February 15 – Totò, actor and composer
• February 28 – Molly Picon, Broadway star
• March 4 – Robert Schmertz, American folk musician and architect (d. 1975)
• April 3 – George Jessel, American actor, singer & songwriter
• April 9 – Paul Robeson, singer
• May 14 – Zutty Singleton, jazz drummer
• May 15 – Arletty, actress and singer
• May 26 – Ernst Bacon, pianist and composer (d. 1990)
• May 28 – Andy Kirk, jazz musician
• June 6 – Ninette de Valois, founder of the UK's Royal Ballet
• June 29 – Yvonne Lefébure, French pianist
• July 4 – Gertrude Lawrence, English actress, singer and dancer
• July 6 – Hanns Eisler, composer
• July 15 – Noel Gay, English songwriter
• August 2 – Anthony Franchini, Italian-born guitarist
• August 15 – Charles Tobias, US songwriter and singer
• August 24 – Fred Rose, songwriter, music publisher
• September 1
  • Marilyn Miller, US actress, singer and dancer
  • Violet Carson, actress, singer and pianist
• September 26 – George Gershwin, US composer
• September 27 – Vincent Youmans, US composer
• October 7 – Alfred Wallenstein, US cellist and conductor
• October 8 – Clarence Williams, US jazz pianist and composer
• October 18 – Lotte Lenya, singer and actress, wife of Kurt Weill
• November 1 – Sippie Wallace, blues singer
• December 3 (n.s.) – Lev Knipper, Russian composer (and NKVD agent)
• December 5 – Grace Moore, operatic soprano
• December 14 – Lillian Randolph, actress and singer
• December 24 – Baby Dodds, jazz drummer

• January 7 – Heinrich Lichner, composer, 68
• January 8 – Alexandre Dubuque, composer, 85
• January 16 – Antoine François Marmontel, pianist and teacher, 81
• February 15 – Franz Behr, composer (b. 1837)
• March 11 – Tigran Chukhajian, conductor and composer, founder of the first opera institution in the Ottoman Empire, 60
• March 15 – Julius Schulhoff, pianist and composer, 72
• March 28 – Anton Seidl, conductor, 47
• April 21 – Théodore Gouvy, composer, 78
• May 15 – Ede Reményi, violinist, 70
• May 16 – Jean Antoine Zinnen, composer of the Luxembourg national anthem, 71
• August 17 – Karl Zeller, Austrian composer, 56 (pneumonia)
• August 21 – Niccolò van Westerhout, composer, 40 (peritonitis)
• September 9 – William Chatterton Dix, hymn-writer, 61
• September 11 – Adolphe Samuel, Belgian composer, 74
• November 7 – Max Alvary, operatic tenor, 42
• December 13 – George Frederick Bristow, composer, 72
• December 29 – Georg Goltermann, cellist and composer, 74