January 1 – Julius Friedländer buys the Leipzig music publishing house, CF Peters.
February 9 – The second "Querelle des Bouffons" is sparked when Hector Berlioz criticizes of Richard Wagner's music in the Journal des débats. Wagner responds on February 15.
February 10 - The Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hamburg.
March 3 - The Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
April 9 – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville records himself singing "Au Clair de la Lune" – the first known recording of the human voice.
May 4 – Charles Bacon's bronze statue of the late Felix Mendelssohn is unveiled at Crystal Palace in London.
September 14 – Franz Liszt makes a will.
October 22 – The city of Weimar pays tribute to Franz Liszt with a torchlight procession and honorary citizenship.
The first Viennese operetta, Das Pensionat by Franz von Suppé, is premièred at the Theater an der Wien
First official National Eisteddfod of Wales is held at Denbigh.
and to include the famous song Battle Cry of Freedom
"Down Among the Cane-Brakes" by Stephen Foster
"Kalinka" by Ivan Larionov
"Lincoln and Liberty" words by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.
"Mary Of Argyle" words by Charles H. Jefferys, music by Sidney Nelson
"Old Black Joe" by Stephen Foster
"Virginia Belle" by Stephen Foster
"When the Corn Is Waving, Annie Dear" by Charles Blamphin
"I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" words by Maud Irving, music by Joseph Philbrick Webster
Johannes Brahms
Vier Gesänge, for women's chorus, two horns and harp, Op. 17
String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg
Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen (libretto by Prudens van Duyse, premiered at Ghent)
Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina
Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production
March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer (d. 1903)
May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer (d. 1932)
May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, pianist and composer (d. 1909)
June 25 – Gustave Charpentier, composer (d. 1956)
July 7
Florence Farr, actress and composer (d. 1917)
Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
September 1 – Cleofonte Campanini, conductor (d. 1919)
September 18 – Alberto Franchetti, opera composer (d. 1942)
November 6 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist (d. 1941)
November 27 – Victor Ewald, composer (d. 1935)
December 4 – Lillian Russell, US singer and actress (d. 1922)
December 18 – Edward MacDowell, pianist and composer (d. 1908)
December 20 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, dancer and singer (d. 1904)
December 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter (d. 1936)
January 26 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer (b. 1804)
March 6 – Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, French cellist and composer (b. 1783)
March 14 – Louis Antoine Jullien, conductor and composer (b. 1812)
May 21 – Johannes Frederik Fröhlich, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1806)
June 21 – Mykola Markevych, musician, composer and poet (b. 1804)
10 August – Sara Augusta Malmborg, singer, pianist and painter (b. 1810)
August 26 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (b. 1789)
September 25 – Carl Friedrich Zöllner, composer and choirmaster (b. 1800)
November 27 – Ludwig Rellstab, critic (b. 1799)
date unknown
James Barr, composer (b. 1779)
Veena Kuppayyar, composer of Carnatic music (b. 1798)
1860 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
