1587 in music

Events

 * January 31 – Pedro Bermúdez is dismissed from the position of maestro de capilla of the collegiate church at Antequera and briefly imprisoned, for gross negligence and a fight with one of his tenors.
 * November 15 – Tobias Kühn is appointed to a musical post as a singer but also as a lutenist at the court in Wolfenbüttel.

Publications

 * Felice Anerio – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Giammateo Asola
 * Nova vespertina omnium solemnitatum psalmodia for eight voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino), also includes a Magnificat
 * Le Vergini for three voices, book 2 (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti), a madrigal cycle, setting Petrarch's Vergine bella
 * Madrigals for two voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Ippolito Baccusi – Fourth book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Ludovico Balbi – Ecclesiasticarum cantionum in sacris totius anni Sanctorum sollemnitatibus for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giovanni Bassano – Canzonettas for four voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Johannes Eccard – Epithalamion nuptiis (Sponsa decora veni) for five voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder
 * First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Andrea Gabrieli & Giovanni Gabrieli – Concerti (Venice: Angelo Gardano), the majority of the pieces are by Andrea, published posthumously
 * Vincenzo Galilei – Second book of madrigals for four and five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Jacobus Gallus – Opus musicum, volumes 2 & 3 (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
 * Marc'Antonio Ingegneri
 * Second book of masses for five voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Fifth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Orlande de Lassus – Madrigals for four, five, and six voices (Nuremberg: Catharina Gerlach), his seventh and final book of only madrigals
 * Carolus Luython – Popularis anni jubilus for six voices (Prague: Georg Nigrinus), a collection of motets
 * Giovanni de Macque – Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Luca Marenzio
 * Fourth book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Fourth book of villanelle for three voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Fifth book of villanelle for three voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
 * Tiburtio Massaino
 * Psalmi omnes ad vesperas per totum annum for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Second book of masses for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Rinaldo del Mel – Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Philippe de Monte
 * First book of masses (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin)
 * Second book of motets for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Twelfth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Claudio Monteverdi – Madrigali a cinque voci di Claudio Monteverde Cremonese discepolo del Sig.r Marc'Antonio Ingegnieri... Libro primo (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a book of madrigals
 * Jakob Paix – Parodia mottetae Domine da nobis auxilium, Thomae Crequilonis, senis vocibus, ad Dorium (Lauingen, Leonhard Reinmichel)
 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Second book of motets for four voices
 * Benedetto Pallavicino – First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)

Compositions

 * Adam Puschmann, Wachtelweise, a Meisterton, collected in his manuscript Singebuch (1588)

Births

 * February 26 (baptized) – Stefano Landi, Roman composer and teacher (died 1639)
 * September 18 – Francesca Caccini, Florentine composer and lutenist (died after 1641)
 * November 3 (baptized) – Samuel Scheidt, German composer (died 1654)
 * date unknown – Francesco Lambardi, Neapolitan composer (died 1642)

Deaths

 * February 9 – Vincenzo Ruffo, Veronese composer (born 1508)
 * June 15 – Giovanni Battista Pinello di Ghirardi, Italian composer and singer (born c.1544)
 * August 29 – Vincenzo Bellavere, Venetian composer (born c.1540/1541)