1840 in music

This article is about music-related events in 1840.

Events

 * February 11 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
 * April 2 – Première of Ferdinand Hiller's oratorio, Die Zerstörung Jerusalems, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
 * June 9 – Franz Liszt gives the first piano recital, in London's Hanover Square Rooms.
 * c. June - Felix Mendelssohn releases his score for String Quartet No. 3 in D Major.
 * August 6 – First major public performance since the death of Johann Sebastian Bach of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 for organ attributed to him, given by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
 * c. October – Richard Wagner is committed to debtors' prison in France while completing his opera Rienzi.
 * Robert Schumann's "year of song", in which he writes the two Liederkreis, Frauenliebe und -leben and Dichterliebe.  He also marries Clara Wieck.
 * The first harmonium is built.
 * Anton Schindler's biography of Ludwig van Beethoven is published.
 * Michele Carafa becomes Professor of Counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire.
 * Édouard Batiste and François Bazin share the Prix de Rome.

Popular music

 * Henry Russell (music) & Eliza Cook (lyrics) – "The Old Arm Chair"
 * Robert Lucas de Pearsall – "Lay a garland"

Classical music

 * Hector Berlioz - Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale 26 July
 * Johannes Bernards van Bree - String Quartet No. 2
 * Johanna Kinkel - Don Ramiro, Op. 13
 * Felix Mendelssohn – Lobgesang (Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major)
 * Giacomo Meyerbeer - Nella
 * Robert Schumann
 * Liederkreis, Op. 24
 * Myrthen, Op. 25
 * Lieder und Gesänge volume, Op. 27
 * 3 Gedichte, Op. 29
 * 3 Gedichte, Op. 30
 * 3 Gesänge, Op. 31
 * 6 Lieder, Op. 33
 * 4 Duets, Op. 34
 * 12 Gedichte, Op. 35
 * 6 Gedichte, Op. 36
 * Liederkreis, Op. 39
 * 5 Lieder, Op. 40
 * Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42
 * 3 Duets, Op. 43
 * Romanzen & Balladen volume I, Op. 45
 * Dichterliebe, Op. 48
 * Romanzen & Balladen volume II, Op. 49
 * Romanzen & Balladen volume III, Op. 53
 * Belsatzar, ballad, Op. 57


 * Louis Spohr – Symphony no 6 in G major, Op. 116 "Historical"

Opera

 * Gaetano Donizetti – "La Favorite" and La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment)
 * Albert Lortzing – Hans Sachs
 * Temistocle Solera – Ildegonda
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Un giorno di regno

Births

 * January 18 – Ernst Rudorff, composer and music teacher (d. 1918)
 * February 2 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, pianist and composer (d. 1910)
 * February 12 – Philippe Decker, conductor and composer (d. 1881)
 * February 22 - Samuel de Lange, composer and educator (d. 1911)
 * February 24 – Auguste Götze, German classical singer and vocal pedagogue (d. 1908)
 * March 8 – Franco Faccio, conductor and composer (d. 1891)
 * April 12 – Franz Xaver Haberl, musicologist (d. 1910)
 * May 7 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
 * May 9 – Blanche d'Antigny, singer and actress (d. 1874)
 * August 1 – Franz Simandl, double-bassist and teacher (d. 1912)
 * August 28 – Ira D. Sankey, gospel singer and composer (d. 1908)
 * September 14 – George Whiting, composer (d. 1923)
 * September 30 – Johan Svendsen, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
 * October 18 – Roberto Stagno, operatic tenor (d. 1897)
 * December 7 – Hermann Goetz, composer (d. 1876)
 * December 17 – C. F. E. Horneman, composer (d. 1906)

Deaths

 * March 20 – Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut, lawyer and musician, 68
 * May 1 – Giuditta Grisi, operatic mezzo-soprano, 34
 * May 10 – Catterino Cavos, organist, conductor and composer, 64
 * May 25 – Nikolai Lavrov, operatic baritone, 37
 * May 27 – Niccolò Paganini, violinist and composer, 57
 * June 5 – William Dance, pianist and violinist, 84
 * June 16 – Joseph Kreutzer, violinist, conductor and composer, 49
 * September 15 - Franz Pecháček, violinist and composer, 47
 * November 19 – Johann Michael Vogl, baritone and composer, 72