1586 in music

Publications

 * Lodovico Agostini – Le lagrime del peccatore (The Tears of the Sinner), fourth book for six voices, Op. 12 (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Felice Anerio – First book of canzonettas for four voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amandino)
 * Giammateo Asola
 * Psalms (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino), also includes a Te Deum
 * Missae octonis compositae tonis for four voices (Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Officium defunctorum for four voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Lodovico Balbi – Cappriccios for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giulio Belli – First book of masses for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Camillo Cortellini – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Ferrara: Vittorio Baldini)
 * Jacobus Gallus – Opus musicum, volume 1 (Prague: Georg Nigrinus).
 * Ruggiero Giovannelli – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Marc'Antonio Ingegneri
 * First book of motets for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Simon Bar Jona Madelka – Seven Penitential Psalms for five voices (Altdorf: Nikolaus Knorr)
 * Jacques Mauduit – Chansonnettes mesurées de Jan-Antoine de Baïf for four voices (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard)
 * Rinaldo del Mel – Second book of madrigaletti for three voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Philippe de Monte – Eleventh book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giovanni Maria Nanino
 * Motets for three and five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Lucas Osiander the Elder – Fünfftzig Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Fifty sacred songs and psalms) for four voices (Nuremberg: Katharina Gerlach)
 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Second book of madrigals for four voices
 * Nicola Parma – Sacrae cantiones..., book two (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti & Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Costanzo Porta – Fourth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giaches de Wert – Eighth book of madrigals for five voices

Compositions

 * Anthony Holborne – The Countess of Pembroke's Funerals

Births
Probable
 * January 20 – Johann Hermann Schein, German composer (died 1630)
 * July 1 – Claudio Saracini, lutenist, singer and composer (died 1630)
 * Andrea Falconieri, composer (died 1653)

Deaths

 * August 27 – George de La Hèle, Franco-Flemish composer
 * November – Bernardino de Figueroa, composer (born c. 1510)