Editing 1981 in music (section)

==Classical music==
* [[Milton Babbitt]] 
**''Don'', for piano four-hands
**''Ars Combinatoria'', for small orchestra
* [[Leonard Bernstein]] 
**''[[Olympic Hymn (Bernstein)|Olympic Hymn]]'', chorus and orchestra
* [[Rob du Bois]]
**String Quartet no. 3
**Sonata for solo viola
* [[George Crumb]] – ''Gnomic Variations'' for piano
* [[Peter Maxwell Davies]] – Piano Sonata
* [[Joël-François Durand]] – String Trio
* [[Morton Feldman]]
** ''Bass Clarinet and Percussion'', for bass clarinet, cymbals and gongs
** ''Triadic Memories'', for piano
** ''For Aaron Copland'', for violin
* [[Lorenzo Ferrero]]
** ''Balletto''
** ''Arioso II''
** ''Variazioni sulla notte'', for guitar
* [[Cristóbal Halffter]]
** ''Fantasia sobre una sonoridad de G. F. Haendel'', for string orchestra
** ''Ricercare'', for organ
* [[Bengt Hambraeus]] – ''Voluntary on a Swedish Hymn Tune from Dalecarlia''
* [[Wojciech Kilar]] – ''Exodus'', a vocal-symphonic poem for mixed choir and orchestra
* [[George Lloyd (composer)|George Lloyd]] – Tenth Symphony (for brass)
* Tome Mančev
** Symphonic Poem, for large orchestra, Op. 16
** ''Dance'', for piano and percussion, Op. 19
** ''The Year 1014'', for mixed chorus, Op. 20
** ''March of the Bicyclists'', for children's chorus
* [[Miroslav Miletić]]
** Sonatina for violin and guitar
** Sonata for viola and piano
** ''Three Popular Songs from Dalmatia'' for voice and guitar
* [[Steve Reich]] – ''[[Tehillim (Reich)|Tehillim]]''
* [[Roger Sessions]] – Concerto for Orchestra (recorded by [[Seiji Ozawa]] and the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], and for which the composer receives the [[Pulitzer Prize for Music]])
* [[Robert Simpson (composer)|Robert Simpson]]
** Quintet for clarinet and strings
** Symphony No. 8
* [[Stanislaw Skrowaczewski]] – Clarinet Concerto
* [[Alfred Schnittke]]
** [[Symphony No. 3 (Schnittke)|Symphony No. 3]]
** ''Minnesang'', for 52 voices
** String Quartet No. 2
* [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]]
**''[[Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)#Klavierstück XIII|Klavierstück XIII]]''
**''[[Licht#Auxiliary works|Traum-Formel]]'', for basset horn