Events in the year 1885 in music.

• 1885 in Norwegian music

• October 25 – Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 4 is premiered in Meiningen
• Tin Pan Alley group of popular songwriters and publishers forms in New York City

• "American Patrol"     m. F. W. Meacham
• "The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery"     w.m. George Ware
• "Dars a Lock on de Chicken Coop Door" by Sam Lucas
• "Funny Things They Do Upon The Sly"     w. G. W. Hunter & John Cooke Jnr m. G. W. Hunter
• "Open Road"     Johann Strauss II
• "Raise me, Jesus, to thy bosom," w. by George Birdseye, m. by William A. Huntley^[1][2]
• "Saffi's Aria"     Johann Strauss II
• "Some Sweet Day" by Edward L. Park & William Howard Doane
• "This Is The House That Jerry Built"     w. T. S. Lonsdale m. W. G. Eaton
• "What Cheer 'Ria"     w. Will Herbert m. Bessie Bellwood
• From the score of The Mikado:
  • "A More Humane Mikado" ("Let the Punishment fit the Crime")
  • "The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring"
  • "There Is Beauty In The Bellow Of The Blast"
  • "Three Little Maids From School"
  • "A Wand'ring Minstrel I"

• Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 4, Op. 98, in E minor
• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7
• George Whitefield Chadwick – String Quartet No. 3 in D^[3]
• Antonín Dvořák – Symphony No. 7, Op. 70, in D minor
• Cesar Franck
  • Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra
  • Danse lente for piano
• Alexander Glazunov – Stenka Razin
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Violin Sonata No. 1
• Jean Sibelius – String Quartet in E-flat
• Richard Strauss
  • Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13
  • Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major for horn and orchestra
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Manfred Symphony
• José Vianna da Motta – Piano Concerto in A

• Emmanuel Chabrier – Gwendoline
• Fromental Halévy, completed by Georges Bizet – Noé given its first performance at Karlsruhe.
• Jules Massenet – Le Cid
• André Messager
  • La fauvette du temple
  • La Béarnaise
• Emile Pessard – Tabarin premiered on January 12 at the Théâtre de l'Opéra, Paris
• Amilcare Ponchielli – Marion Delorme
• George Stephanescu – Scaiul barbatilor

• Edward Jakobowski – Erminie (libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton) London production
• William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan – The Mikado London production
• Johann Strauss II – Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron) Vienna production

• January 13 – James V. Monaco, Italian-born US composer (d. 1945)
• January 27 – Jerome Kern, composer and songwriter (d. 1945)
• February 9 – Alban Berg, composer (d. 1935)
• February 12 – James Scott, ragtime composer (d. 1938)
• February 16 – Will Fyffe, Scottish comedian and singer (d. 1947)
• March 15 – Bertha Raffetto, American singer (d. 1952)
• May 5 – Agustín Barrios, composer (d. 1944)
• May 14 – Otto Klemperer, conductor and composer (d. 1973)
• May 30 – Erna Ellmenreich, German operatic soprano (d. 1976)
• June 13 – John Palm, Curaçao-born composer (d. 1925)
• June 28 – Marino Capicchioni, Italian musical instrument maker (d. 1977)
• July 12 – George Butterworth, composer (d. 1916)
• July 17 – Benjamin Dale, composer (d. 1943)
• August 9 – Pietro Frosini, accordionist (d. 1951)
• October 15 – Therese Wiet, Austrian operetta singer (d. 1971)
• October 21 – Egon Wellesz, Austrian composer (d. 1974)
• October 25 – Sam M. Lewis, US lyricist (d. 1959)
• December 19 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)

• February 15 – Leopold Damrosch, conductor, 52 (complications from a cold)
• March 31 – Franz Abt, composer, 65
• April 24 – Henry Augustus Rawes, hymn-writer, 58
• May – Adolphe Blanc, composer, 56
• May 1 – Henry Brinley Richards, composer, 67
• May 12 – Ferdinand Hiller, German composer, conductor and pianist, 73
• June 29 – Samuel C. Upham, lyricist, 66
• August 26 – August Gottfried Ritter, organist and composer, 74
• September 11 – Julius Zarebski, Polish pianist and composer, 31
• September 13 – Friedrich Kiel, German composer, 63
• October 21 – Michele Novaro, songwriter, 66