1843 in music

Events

 * February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).
 * May 22 – Gottfried Kinkel marries fellow musician Johanna Mockel.
 * November 13 – Gaetano Donizetti's final opera Dom Sébastien is premiered at the Paris Opera.
 * December 26 – Following the première of his last opera, Hernani, Alberto Mazzucato retires from composing in order to become a full-time music teacher.
 * Approximate date – Euphonium invented.
 * August Conradi becomes organist of the Invalidenhaus, Berlin.
 * Hector Berlioz writes Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, Op. 10

Popular music

 * "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" by Thomas Becket
 * "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls" w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe from the light opera The Bohemian Girl
 * "Old Dan Tucker", usually attributed to Dan Emmett
 * "Then You'll Remember Me" w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe from the light opera The Bohemian Girl

Classical music

 * Dionisio Aguado – Nuevo método para guitarra, Op. 6
 * Ernesto Cavallini – Concert Fantasia on motives from 'La sonnambula'
 * Frédéric Chopin
 * Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, opus 51
 * Ballade No. 4 in F minor, opus 52
 * Mazurkas, Op.56
 * Waltz in A minor, B.150
 * Moderato in E major, B.151
 * August Conradi – Symphony No. 1
 * Carl Czerny – 8 Nocturnes romantiques de différents caractères, Op.604
 * Carl Filtsch
 * Premières pensées musicales, Op.3
 * Overture for orchestra in D major
 * Niels Gade – Symphony No. 2
 * Miska Hauser – Mes adieux a Varsovie, Op.5
 * Johanna Kinkel – 6 Lieder, Op.18
 * Sebastian Lee – 40 Études mélodiques et progressives, Op.31
 * Franz Liszt
 * Album Leaf in E major S.166a
 * Élégie sur des motifs du Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse, S.168
 * Ländler in A-flat major, S.211
 * Gaudeamus igitur, S.240
 * Canzone Napolitana, S.248
 * Il m'aimait tant, S.271
 * Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth, S.274
 * Es war ein König in Thule, S.278
 * Der du von dem Himmel bist, S.279
 * Die tote Nachtigall, S.291
 * Réminiscences de 'Robert le diable', S.413
 * Hans Christian Lumbye
 * Tivolis Rutschbane Galop (dated August 11)
 * Tivolis Damp-Caroussellbane Galop (dated August 26)
 * Tivolis Gondol Galop (dated September 3)
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58
 * Die erste Walpurgisnacht, secular cantata, opus 60 (première in Leipzig, February 2)
 * Joachim Raff – 4 Galop-caprices, Op.5
 * Robert Schumann − Paradise and the Peri, secular oratorio, opus 50 (premiere in Leipzig, December)
 * Johann Strauss – Lorelei Rhein Klänge op. 154 ("Echoes of the Rhine Loreley")
 * Pauline Viardot – Album de Mme. Viardot-Garcia

Opera

 * 27 November – Michael William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl debuts in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
 * Julius Benedict – The Bride of Venice
 * Gaetano Donizetti – Don Pasquale
 * Giovanni Pacini – Medea
 * Giuseppe Verdi – I Lombardi
 * Richard Wagner – The Flying Dutchman
 * Fromental Halévy – Charles VI, premiered March 15 in Paris

Births

 * January 22 – Caroline Montigny-Rémaury, pianist (died 1913)
 * February 6 – Frederic William Henry Myers, lyricist (died 1901)
 * February 10 – Adelina Patti, soprano (died 1919)
 * February 14 – Louis Diémer, pianist (died 1919)
 * February 24 – Violet Fane, lyricist (died 1905)
 * February 25 – Narciso Serradell, Mexican composer (died 1910)
 * March 6 – Arthur Napoleão dos Santos, Brazilian pianist and composer, instrument dealer and music publisher (died 1925)
 * March 16
 * Louis Gregh, composer and publisher (died 1915)
 * Gustave Sandré, composer (died 1916)
 * April 4 – Dr. Hans Richter, conductor (died 1916)
 * April 8 – Asger Hamerik, composer (died 1923)
 * May 2 – Karl Michael Ziehrer, Austrian composer and bandmaster (died 1922)
 * May 20 – Miguel Marqués, Spanish composer and violinist (died 1918)
 * May 29 – Émile Pessard, French composer (died 1917)
 * June 13 – Adolf Neuendorff, German-American composer, conductor, pianist and violinist (died 1897)
 * June 15 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (died 1907)
 * June 16 – David Popper, cellist and composer (died 1913)
 * June 19 – Charles Edouard Lefebvre, French composer (died 1917)
 * June 20 – Fyodor Stravinsky, opera singer and father of Igor Stravinsky (died 1902)
 * July 9 – Ralph E. Hudson, American hymnwriter (died 1901)
 * August 4 – Flor van Duyse, Belgian composer and musicologist (died 1910)
 * August 5 – James Scott Skinner, Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler, and composer (died 1927)
 * August 20 – Christina Nilsson, operatic soprano (died 1921)
 * August 26 – Georg August Lumbye, Danish composer, son of Hans Christian Lumbye (died 1922)
 * September 4 – Ján Levoslav Bella, Slovak composer (died 1936)
 * November 2 –
 * Elek Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel (died 1893)
 * Caryl Florio, composer (died 1920)
 * November 16 – George Hendrik Witte, composer (died 1929)
 * November 28 – Émile Bernard, French composer and organist (died 1902)
 * December 3 – Franz Xaver Neruda, Danish cellist and composer (died 1915)
 * December 13 – George Stephanescu, Romanian composer (died 1925)
 * December 22 – Julius Bechgaard, Danish composer (died 1917)
 * date unknown – Eduard Holst, Danish composer

Deaths

 * January 7 – Franz Schoberlechner, pianist (born 1797)
 * January 11
 * Auguste Andrade, singer (born 1793)
 * Antoine Bournonville, dancer, singer and actor, 82
 * Francis Scott Key, poet and songwriter, 63
 * March 9 – Christian August Pohlenz, conductor and composer, 52
 * April 14 – Josef Lanner, Viennese composer, 42 (typhoid)
 * May 3 – Franz Xaver Gebel, conductor, composer and music teacher, 55 or 56
 * May 4 – Eduard Rottmanner, organist and composer, 33
 * May 12 – Johann Georg Lickl, composer and piano teacher, 74
 * July – Nehemiah Shumway, composer of sacred music, 81
 * July 9 – Karoline Pichler, lyricist (born 1769)
 * July 24 – Carl Julius Adolph Hugo Hoffmann, composer (born 1801)
 * July 29 – Domenico Reina, operatic and bel canto tenor, 47
 * August 29 – Charles Jane Ashley, cellist and secretary of the Royal Society of Musicians, 70
 * date unknown
 * Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, pianist (born c.1770)
 * Agnes Franz, lyricist (born 1794)
 * Knut Luraas, Hardingfele fiddler (born 1782)