1585 in music

Publications

 * Felice Anerio
 * First book of madrigali spirituali for five voices (Rome: Alessandro Gardano)
 * Second book of madrigali spirituali for five voices (Rome: Alessandro Gardano)
 * Giammateo Asola
 * Completorium romanum duae Beatae Virginis antiphonae, scilicet Salve Regina & Regina coeli (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto), also includes four other motets
 * Hymni ad vespertina omnium solennitatum... (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino), in two parts
 * Ippolito Baccusi – Second book of masses, for five, six, and eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Giovanni Bassano
 * Fantasies for three voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Ricercate, passagi, et cadentie (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino), a collection of examples of instrumental ornamentation.
 * Girolamo Belli
 * Psalmi ad vesperas cum hymnis et Magnificat for four voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino), a collection of music for Vespers, including psalms, hymns, and a Magnificat
 * First book of Sacrae cantiones for six voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Joan Brudieu – Madrigals for four voices (Barcelona: Hubert Gotard)
 * Joachim a Burck – Dreissig geistliche Lieder auff die Fest durchs Jahr for four voices (Mühlhausen: Georg Hantzsch), settings of hymn texts by Ludwig Helmbold
 * Gioseppe Caimo – Fourth book of madrigals for five voices (Milan: Pietro Tini)
 * Giovanni Croce – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Johannes Eccard – Epithalamion in honorem nuptiarum D. Simonis Levskeri et Catharinae Joannis Pasauri filiae for six voicer (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Stefano Felis
 * Second book of motets for five, six, and eight voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Fourth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Giovanni Ferretti – Fifth book of canzoni alla napolitana for five voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Ruggiero Giovannelli – Gli sdruccioli, his first book of madrigals for four voices (Rome: Alessandro Grandi)
 * Gioseffo Guami – First book of motets for five, six, seven, eight, and ten voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Francisco Guerrero – Passio secundum Matthaeum et Joannem (Rome: Alessandro Gardano)
 * Paolo Isnardi – Omnes ad vesperas psalmi for four voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Jacobus de Kerle – Selectiorum aliquot modulorum for four, five, and eight voices (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * Orlande de Lassus
 * Sacrae cantiones for four voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
 * Cantica sacra for six and eight voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
 * Lamentations for five voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
 * Madrigals for five voices (Nuremberg: Catharina Gerlach)
 * Claude Le Jeune – Livre de mélanges (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin), a collection of chansons
 * Luca Marenzio
 * Third book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Fifth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * First book of madrigals for four voices (Rome: Alessandro Gardano)
 * Second book of canzonette alla napolitana for three voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino), his second collection of villanelle
 * Third book of villanelle for three voices (Rome: Alessandro Gardano)
 * Rinaldo del Mel
 * Third book of motets for five and six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * First book of madrigals for five and six voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Philippe de Monte – First book of motets for six and twelve voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Benedetto Pallavicino – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Costanzo Porta – Third book of motets for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)

Classical music

 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Missa tu es pastor ovium

Musical theatre

 * Andrea Gabrielli – Choruses for the play Edippo Tiranno, performed in Vicenza

Births

 * October 8 (JC) – Heinrich Schütz, German composer (died 1672)
 * date unknown
 * Johann Grabbe, composer (died 1655)
 * Wojciech Dębołęcki, Franciscan friar, writer and composer (died 1646)
 * probable – Domenico Allegri, singer and composer (died 1629)
 * Andrea Falconieri, composer (died 1653)

Deaths

 * August 30 – Andrea Gabrieli, organist and composer (born c.1532)
 * November 28 – Hernando Franco, composer (born 1532)
 * December 3 – Thomas Tallis, church musician and composer (born 1505)