1561 in music

Events

 * May – Luzzasco Luzzaschi is appointed assistant organist at the Este court in Ferrara.
 * 20 December – Virtuoso bass-tenor Alessandro Merlo joins the Cappella Sistina in Rome
 * date unknown –
 * Rodrigo de Ceballos succeeds Bernardino de Figueroa as maestro de capilla at the Royal Chapel of Granada.
 * Philibert Jambe de Fer sues the Lyonnais printer Jean d'Ogerelles for failing to give his name on the title page of a volume of his psalm settings.

Publications

 * Il terzo libro della muse, a collection of secular music
 * Jacques Arcadelt – Quatorsième livre de chansons (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard)
 * Jacquet de Berchem – Primo Secundo e Terzo Libro del Cappricio for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano), a madrigal cycle setting stanzas of Orlando Furioso, and the first musical work to be titled "Cappricio"
 * Ippolito Chamaterò – First book of madrigals for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * Ippolito Ciera – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * Nicolao Dorati – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * Jacquet of Mantua
 * First book of messe del fiore for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto), published posthumously
 * Second book of messe del fiore for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto), published posthumously
 * Jacobus de Kerle
 * Liber psalmorum ad vesperas (Book of Vespers Psalms) for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * First book of Magnificats for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * Gerardus Mes – Souter liedekens (Antwerp: Tielman Susato), a collection of psalms
 * Jan Nasco – Lamentations for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
 * Christoph Praetorius – Melodia epithalamii for five voices (Wittenberg), a wedding motet

Births

 * January 24 – Camillo Cortellini, Italian composer, singer, and violinist (d. 1630)
 * July 17 – Jacopo Corsi, Italian composer and patron of the arts (d. 1602)
 * August – Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia, Spanish monk, organist and composer (d. 1627)
 * August 20 – Jacopo Peri, Italian singer and composer of early opera (d. 1633)
 * date unknown – Juan Blas de Castro, Spanish singer, musician, and composer (d. 1631)
 * probable
 * Elias Mertel, German lutenist, composer and intabulator (d. 1626)
 * Peter Philips (c.1560/1561), eminent English composer, organist, and Catholic priest, the most published English composer in his time (d. 1628).
 * Philippe Rogier, Franco-Flemish composer at the Spanish court (d. 1596).

Deaths

 * February 15 – Cornelius Canis, Franco-Flemish composer, singer, and choir director (b. c. 1500/1510)
 * date unknown – Jan Nasco, Franco-Flemish composer and writer on music (b. c. 1510)
 * probable
 * Louis Bourgeois, French composer, famous for his Protestant hymn tunes (b. c. 1510)
 * Ippolito Ciera, Italian composer
 * Luis de Milán, Spanish Renaissance composer, vihuelist and writer on music (b. c. 1500)
 * Hendrik Niehoff, Dutch pipe organ builder (b. 1495)