1580 in music

Events

 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina loses his wife in an outbreak of plague.

Bands formed

 * The Concerto delle donne is founded by Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara.

Popular music

 * First recorded appearance of the English ballad Greensleeves.

Publications

 * Giammateo Asola – Second book of masses for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), also includes a Requiem mass for two choirs
 * Lodovico Balbi – Masses for four and five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Anthoine de Bertrand
 * First book of sonets chrestiens mis en musique for four voices (Senlis: Simon Goulart; Lyon: Charles Pesnot)
 * Second book of sonets chrestiens mis en musique for four voices (Senlis: Simon Goulart; Lyon: Charles Pesnot)
 * Joachim a Burck
 * Officium Sacrosanctae Coenae Dominicae, super cantiunculam: Quam mirabilis ex primo libro odarum compositum for four voices (Erfurt: Georg Baumann)
 * Hebdomas divinitus instituta for four voices (Mühlhausen: Georg Hantzsch)
 * Girolamo Diruta – Il primo libro de contrapunti, sopra il canto fermo delle antifone delle feste principali de tutto l'anno for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Placido Falconio
 * Turbarum voces (Voices of the crowd) for four voices (Brescia: Vincenzo Sabbio), a collection of motets
 * Voces Christi (Voices of Christ) for three voices (Brescia: Vincenzo Sabbio), a collection of motets
 * Sacra Responsoria Hebdomadae Sanctae for four voices (Brescia: Vincenzo Sabbio), a collection of responsories for Holy Week
 * Threni Hieremiae prophetae, una cum psalmis, Benedictus et Miserere for four voices (Brescia: Vincenzo Sabbio), a setting of Lamentations
 * Andrea Gabrieli – Second book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Jacobus Gallus
 * First book of masses for seven and eight voices (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * First book of masses for six voices (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * First book of masses for five voices (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * First book of masses for four voice (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * Mikołaj Gomółka – Melodiae ná psałterz polski for four voices (Kraków: Lazarus), a Polish psalter
 * Eucharius Hoffmann – Geistlicher Lieder in irer gewöhnlichen Melodey auff Villanellen art for four voices, part one (Rostock: Augustin Ferber)
 * Marc'Antonio Ingegneri – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giorgio Mainerio – Sacra cantica Beatissimae Mariae Virginis omnitonum for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a collection of Magnificats
 * Luca Marenzio – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Tiburtio Massaino – Second book of motets for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Claudio Merulo – First book of madrigals for three voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Philippe de Monte
 * Fourth book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Eighth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Ninth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: hiers of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Leonhard Päminger – Quartus tomus cantionem ecclestiacarum..., published posthumously in Nuremberg
 * Costanzo Porta – Liber quinquaginta duorum motectorum (Book of Fifty-two Motets) for four, five, six, seven, and eight voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Johann Wanning – Sacrae Cantiones quinque, sex, septem et octo voces compositae, et tum vivae voces, tum musicis instrumentis aptatae (first part of first cycle of sacred de tempore motets)

Births

 * July 6 – Johann Stobäus, German composer (d. 1646)
 * date unknown – Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, German-Italian performer and composer of lute, theorbo and chitarrone music (d. 1651)
 * probable
 * Michael East, English organist and composer (d. 1648)
 * Thomas Ford, English composer (d. 1648)
 * Adriana Basile, Italian composer (d. 1640)

Deaths

 * January 18 – Antonio Scandello, Italian composer (b. 1517)
 * April 1 – Alonso Mudarra, Spanish composer and vihuelist (b. c.1510)
 * September 15 – Geert van Turnhout, Flemish composer (b. c.1530)
 * November 30 – Richard Farrant, English composer of church music, choirmaster, playwright and theatrical producer (b. c.1530)