1596 in music

Events

 * John Bull is chosen as the first professor of music at Gresham College on the recommendation of Elizabeth I

Publications

 * Agostino Agazzari – First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Felice Anerio – First book of Sacri hymni et cantica (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Ippolito Baccusi
 * Sacrae cantiones psalmi videlicet, et omnia quae ad completorium pertinent for five voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Missae tres tum viva voce tum omni instrumentorum genere cantatu commodissimae (3 Masses fit for both living voices and instruments of all types) for eight voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Adriano Banchieri – Second book of Canzoni alla francese for four voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Girolamo Belli – First book of canzonettas for four voices (Ferrara: Vittorio Baldini)
 * Giulio Belli – Psalmi ad vesperas in totius anni solemnitatibus for eight voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a collection of Psalms for Vespers, also includes two Magnificats
 * Aurelio Bonelli – First book of villanelle for three voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Giovanni Croce
 * Masses for eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * First book of masses for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Salmi che si cantano a Terza, con l'inno Te Deum, & i salmi Benedictus e Miserere for eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti), containing psalms for Terce
 * Li sette sonetti penitenziali (The seven penitential sonnets) for six voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti), settings of the seven penitential psalms in sonnet form, translated by Giovanni Francesco Bembo
 * Christoph Demantius – Joel, chapter 2 verse 12 for five voices (Nuremberg: Paul Kauffman)
 * Scipione Dentice – Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Johannes Eccard
 * XX. Odae sacrae: Ludovici Helmboldi (Twenty sacred odes by Ludwig Helmbold) (Mühlhausen: Hieronymous Reinhard)
 * Epithalamium (Wer Gottes Wort mit Fleis betracht) for six voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Harmonia musica (Cui virtutis amans) for eight voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Hochzeit Lied (Wo fern ein Eh gerathen soll) for five voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Harmonia (Casta Leonhardo ...) for six voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger), a wedding song
 * Stefano Felis – Fourth book of motets for five, six, and eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
 * Andrea Gabrieli – Third book of ricercari (Venice: Angelo Gardano), published posthumously
 * Jacobus Gallus – Moralia for five, six, and eight voices (Nuremberg: Alexander Philipp Dieterich), published posthumously
 * Bartholomäus Gesius – Novae melodiae harmonicis for five voices (Frankfurt an der Oder: Friedrich Hartmann)
 * Carlo Gesualdo – Fourth book of madrigals for five voices (Ferrara: Vittorio Baldini)
 * Hans Leo Hassler
 * Neüe teüsche Gesäng nach Art der welschen Madrigalien und Canzonetten for four, five, six, and eight voices (Augsburg: Valentin Schönigk)
 * Madrigals for five, six, seven, and eight voices (Augsburg: Valentin Schönigk)
 * Luzzasco Luzzaschi – Sixth book of madrigals for five voices (Ferrara: Vittorio Baldini)
 * Giovanni de Macque – First book of motets for five, six, and eight voices (Rome: Nicolo Mutii)
 * Tiburtio Massaino – Second book of motets for six voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
 * Johannes Matelart – Responsoria, antiphoniae et hymni for four and five voices (Rome: Nicolo Mutii)
 * Philippe de Monte – First book of motets for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
 * Peter Philips – First book of madrigals for six voices (Antwerp: Pierre Phalèse)
 * Orfeo Vecchi – Psalmi integri in totius anni solemnitatibus (Complete psalms for all the solemnities of the year) (Milan: heirs of Francesco and Simon Tini)

Classical music

 * Piero Strozzi – La mascherata degli accecati

Births

 * September 3 – Nicola Amati, Cremonese luthier (died 1684)
 * September 4 – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch composer and poet (died 1687)

Deaths

 * February 29 – Philippe Rogier, composer (born 1561)
 * May 6 – Giaches de Wert, Flemish composer (born 1535)
 * December 27 – Pietro Pontio, composer (born 1532)