Events

• February 28 – Fire breaks out during a performance and destroys the Großherzoglichen Hoftheater in Baden. Most of the audience perishes because the theatre doors cannot be opened from the inside.
• March 3 – I Lombardi alla prima crociata is performed at Palmo's Opera House in New York City, the first presentation of a Verdi opera in the United States.
• March 14 – Verdi's Macbeth is premiėred at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy.
• Franz Liszt gives up performing in public.
• Vladimir Stasov publishes a monograph on Mikhail Glinka's use of folk motifs in his music.

Popular music

• "Cantique de Noël" (" O Holy Night") w. (Fr) Placide Cappeau (Eng) John Sullivan Dwight m. Adolphe Adam
• "Dinah Dear" by Philip Klitz
• "Miss Ginger" by Philip Klitz
• "Roll On Silver Moon" by Joseph W. Turner

Classical music

• Franz Berwald – A Rustic Wedding
• Frederic Chopin
  • Waltz Opus 64 No.1 (Minute)
  • Waltz Op. 64. No. 2
• August Freyer – Concert Variations, Op.2
• Franz Liszt
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
  • Glanes de Woronince
  • Most of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
• Felix Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 6
• Jacques Offenbach – Concerto Militaire for cello and orchestra
• Robert Schumann
  • Symphony No. 2
  • Piano Trio No. 1
• Henryk Wieniawski – Grand Caprice Fantastique Op. 1

Opera

• Francisco Asenjo Barbieri – Il Buontempone
• Giovanni Bottesini – Cristoforo Colombo
• Friedrich von Flotow – Martha
• Ivar Hallstrom – Hvita frun på Drottningholm (libretto by Frans Hedberg)
• Karel Miry – Brigitta (opera in 3 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on June 27 in Ghent)
• Giuseppe Verdi – Macbeth
• William Vincent Wallace – Matilda of Hungary

Births

• January 1 – Rudolf Tillmetz, flute virtuoso, music teacher and composer (d. 1915)
• February 15 – Robert Fuchs, composer and music teacher (d. 1927)
• March 2 – Richard Temple, singer, actor and theatre director (d. 1912)
• March 9 – Axel Grandjean, conductor and composer (d. 1932)
• June 28 – Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, composer (d. 1927)
• July 12 – Karl Heinrich Barth, pianist and music teacher (d. 1922)
• July 21 – Víctor Mirecki Larramat, cellist and music teacher (d. 1921)
• October 21 – Giuseppe Giacosa, librettist for some of Puccini's operas (d. 1906)
• November 1 – Emma Albani, soprano (d. 1930)
• November 30 – August Klughardt, conductor and composer (d. 1902)
• December 1 – Agathe Backer Grøndahl, pianist and composer (d. 1907)
• December 9 – George Grossmith, comic writer and performer (d. 1912)
• December 18 – Augusta Holmès, composer (d. 1903)
• December 28 – James Frederick Swift, organist and composer (d. 1931)
• date unknown – Emma Fursch-Madi, operatic soprano (d. 1894)

Deaths

• January 6 – Tyagaraja, Carnatic music composer (b. 1767)
• April 23 – Erik Gustaf Geijer, writer and composer (b. 1783)
• May 14 – Fanny Mendelssohn, pianist and composer (b. 1805; stroke)
• June 11 – Heinrich Bärmann, clarinet virtuoso (b. 1784)
• June 18 – Lisette Stenberg, actress and musician (b. 1770)
• July 19 – Johann Wilhelm Wilms, composer (b. 1772)
• September 4 – František Vladislav Hek, writer and composer (b. 1769)
• September 25 – Emma Albertazzi, English contralto (b. 1814)
• November 4 – Felix Mendelssohn, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1809)
• November 20 – Henry Francis Lyte, hymnist (born 1793)
• date unknown – Cyrill Demian, piano and organ maker (b. 1772)
• date unknown – Francesco Molino, guitarist and composer (b. 1775)