1570 in music

Events

 * 5 July – Annibale Zoilo joins the Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome as an alto.
 * Luzzasco Luzzaschi becomes master of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara's private musica da camera, which was soon to become one of the most distinguished in Europe
 * Orlande de Lassus is made a nobleman by Emperor Maximilian II, and knighted by Pope Gregory XIII
 * Formation in Paris of Antoine de Baïf's Académie de Poésie et Musique, and consequent development of musique mesurée by composers such as Claude Le Jeune and Guillaume Costeley
 * First appearance of the air de cour, a ubiquitous type of popular secular music in France until around 1650
 * Lázaro del Álamo leaves his post as maestro di capilla in Mexico City
 * Approximate date of the "Son de la Má Teodora", the earliest surviving example of son montuno from Cuba

Publications

 * Lodovico Agostini – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
 * Giovanni Animuccia – Second book of laudi (Rome: Camerali for Antonio Blado)
 * Giammateo Asola – First book of masses for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
 * Ippolito Baccusi
 * First book of masses, for five and six voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
 * First book of madrigals for five and six voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
 * Lodovico Balbi – First book of madrigals for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
 * Vincenzo Bellavere – First book of Giustiniane
 * Maddalena Casulana – Second book of madrigals for four voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto), the second printed collection of music by a woman in European history
 * Pierre Certon – Les meslanges (Paris: Nicolas Du Chemin), a collection of sacred songs for five, six, seven, and eight voices with one for nine and one for thirteen
 * Francesco Corteccia – Responsories for four voices (Venice: the sons of Antonio Gardano)
 * Guillaume Costeley – Musique de Guillaume Costeley (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard), a collection of French chansons for five voices
 * Nicolao Dorati – Le Stanze della Signora Vittoria Colonna Marchesana di Pescara Illustrissima for four voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto), containing settings of poems by Vittoria Colonna
 * Giovanni Ferretti – Third book of canzoni alla napolitana for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
 * Andrea Gabrieli – Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano, figliuoli), also includes two for six voices and a dialogue for eight voices
 * Francisco Guerrero – Motets for four, five, six, and eight voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano, figliuoli)
 * Marc'Antonio Ingegneri – First book of madrigals for four voices (Venice)
 * Nicolas de La Grotte – Chansons de P. de Ronsard, Ph. Desportes, et autres (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard)
 * Orlande de Lassus
 * 5 Masses suavissimis modulationibus refertae (filled with sweet melodies) for four and five voices, book 2 (Venice: Claudio Correggio)
 * Selectiorum aliquot cantionum sacrarum for six voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
 * Mattheus Le Maistre – First book of motets for five voices (Dresden: Gimel Bergen)
 * Philippe de Monte – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Third book of masses, for four to six voices (Rome: heirs of Valerio & Luigi Dorico)

Classical music

 * Geert van Turnhout – Missa ‘O Maria vernans rosa’ a 5
 * Approximate date – Thomas Tallis – Spem in alium

Births

 * June 13 (baptized) – Paul Peuerl, German composer and organist (d. c. after 1625).
 * June 18 (baptized) – Juan Pujol, Catalan composer (d. 1626)
 * August 19 – Salamone Rossi, Italian composer (d. 1630)
 * October 21 – Wolfgang Schonsleder, German composer and music theorist
 * probable
 * Giovanni Paolo Cima, Italian composer (d. 1622)
 * John Cooper (Coprario), English composer (d. 1626)
 * Ignazio Donati, Italian composer (d. 1638)
 * John Farmer, English madrigal composer (d. 1605)
 * Claudia Sessa, Italian composer (d. c. 1617-19)

Deaths

 * January – Pierre Clereau, composer and choirmaster
 * March 25 – Johann Walter, German composer (b. 1496)
 * September – Jean de Bonmarché, composer (b. c. 1525)
 * date unknown – Tomás de Santa María, Spanish music theorist, organist and composer (b. c. 1510).
 * probable
 * Jean Maillard, French composer (approximate date) (b. c. 1515)
 * Diego Ortiz, Spanish music theorist and composer (approximate date) (b. c. 1510)