1839 in music

This article is about music-related events in 1839.

Events

 * March 21 – Felix Mendelssohn conducts the first known performance of Franz Schubert's Great C Major Symphony
 * November 17 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, opens at La Scala, Milan.

Classical music

 * Hector Berlioz – Romeo et Juliette
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Ballade No. 2
 * Scherzo No. 3
 * Piano Sonata No. 2
 * Mikhail Glinka
 * La séparation
 * Polonaise
 * Valse-Fantasie
 * Johann Nepomuk Hummel – 2 Preludes and Fugue for Organ (published posthumously)
 * Joseph Lanner – Amazonen-Galopp; Malapou Galop
 * Franz Liszt
 * Valse mélancolique, S.210
 * Angiolin dal biondo crin, S.269
 * Fantaisie sur des motifs favoris de l'opéra 'La sonnambula', S.393
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * 6 Gesänge, Op. 47
 * Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49
 * "Liebe und Wein"
 * Robert Schumann:
 * Arabesque in C, Op. 18
 * Blumenstück (Flower Piece) in D♭, Op. 19
 * Humoreske in B♭, Op. 20
 * 4 Nachtstücke (Night Pieces), Op. 23
 * Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
 * 3 Romances, Op. 28 (B♭ minor, F♯, B)
 * Louis Spohr – Concerto for Violin no 14 in A minor, Op. 110 "Sonst und Jetzt"

Opera

 * Alexander Dargomyzhsky – Esmeralda
 * Gaetano Donizetti
 * L'Ange de Nisida
 * Il duca d'Alba (composed, premiered 1882)
 * Giuseppe Lillo – Il conte di Chalais
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio

Published popular music

 * "Kathleen Mavourneen" w. Annie Barry Crawford m. Frederick William Nicholls Crouch

Births

 * January 1 – James Ryder Randall, popular songwriter
 * January 9 – John Knowles Paine, composer and musicologist
 * February 7 – Elie Miriam Delaborde, editor and pianist (died 1913)
 * April 18 – Lotten Edholm, composer
 * March 2 – Victoria Bundsen, alto
 * March 10 – Dudley Buck, American composer and organist
 * March 17 – Josef Rheinberger, composer (d. 1901)
 * March 19 – Gustav Roguski, composer and teacher of Mieczysław Karłowicz
 * March 21 – Modest Mussorgsky, composer (d. 1881)
 * April 12 – Victorin de Joncières, composer and music critic (d. 1903)
 * May 19 – Alice Mary Smith, composer (d. 1884)
 * July 14 – Sydney Smith, English composer and pianist
 * August 24 – Eduard Nápravník, composer (d. 1916)
 * November 24 – James Warren York, businessman, musical instrument maker

Deaths

 * February 16 – Ludwig Berger, pianist, composer and music teacher (b. 1777)
 * March 8 – Adolphe Nourrit, operatic tenor (b. 1802) (suicide)
 * April 20 – Giuseppe Rossini, father of the composer Gioacchino Rossini
 * May 3 – Ferdinando Paer, composer (b. 1771)
 * June 8 – Aloysia Weber, operatic soprano (b. c. 1760)
 * June 11 – Regina Strinasacchi, violinist (b. c. 1761)
 * June 14 – Nicolas Mori, violinist, conductor and music publisher (b. 1796)
 * June 15 – Hans Skramstad, pianist and composer (b. 1797)
 * July 10 – Fernando Sor, guitarist and composer (b. 1778)
 * September 21 – Gottfried Weber, music theorist (b. 1779)
 * December 7 – Jan August Vitásek, composer (b. 1770)

Awards

 * Prix de Rome – Charles Gounod