1844 in music

Events

 * May 27 – Joseph Joachim plays the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto with Mendelssohn conducting the London Philharmonic. Later this year he meets Robert and Clara Schumann.
 * October 15 – Johann Strauss Jr. makes his performance debut at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing.
 * November 25 – Seth Gingras music by Michael William Balfe and libretto by Alfred Bunn has its American premiere at the Park Theatre, New York City.
 * Thomas Tellefsen becomes a pupil of Frédéric Chopin.
 * Jacques Offenbach converts to Catholicism and marries Herminie d'Alcain.



Popular music

 * "Buffalo Gals" w. The Ethiopian Serenaders (published 1848), m. John Hodges originally entitled "Lubly Fan"
 * "The Blue Juniata" Marion Dix Sullivan (w. & m.)
 * "Open Thy Lattice, Love" w. George Pope Morris, m. Stephen Collins Foster
 * "Skip To My Lou" Trad. US

Classical music

 * Charles Valentin-Alkan – Gigue et air de ballet, Op.24
 * Hector Berlioz – Roman Carnival Overture
 * César Franck – Eglogue, Op.3
 * Adolf Gutmann – 2 Nocturnes, Op.8
 * Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 2 in B minor, Op. 22
 * Felix Mendelssohn
 * Spring Song m.
 * A Midsummer Night's Dream incidental music (including the Wedding March)
 * Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
 * Léon de Saint-Lubin – 2 Salonstücke, Op.47
 * Louis Spohr – 6 Duettini, Op.127
 * Johann Strauss Jr.
 * Sinngedichte
 * Gunstwerber
 * Herzenslust
 * Joseph W. Turner – When I Left Thy Shores o Naxos
 * William Vincent Wallace – La gondola, Op.18

Opera

 * Georges Bousquet – L'Hôtesse de Lyon
 * Friedrich Flotow – Alessandro Stradella
 * Saverio Mercadante – Leonora, premiered December 5 in Naples
 * Giuseppe Verdi
 * I due Foscari
 * Ernani

Births

 * January 14 – Clara Kathleen Rogers, American singer and composer (d. 1931)
 * January 29 – Charles G. Conn, instrument manufacturer (d. 1931)
 * February 21 – Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
 * March 10 – Pablo de Sarasate, violinist and composer (d. 1908)
 * March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer (died 1908)
 * March 19 – Auguste Kolár, pianist (died 1878)
 * April 9 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
 * April 30 – Richard Hofmann, composer (died 1918)
 * May 8 – Hermann Graedener, conductor and composer (d. 1929)
 * May 21 – Amy Fay, pianist (died 1928)
 * June 3 – Émile Paladilhe, composer (d. 1926)
 * August 24 – Gustav Hinke, oboist (died 1893)
 * September 11 - Carl Bohm, pianist and composer (d. 1920)
 * September 22 – William Stevenson Hoyte, composer (died 1927)
 * December 5 – Sir Frederick Bridge, organist and composer (d. 1924)
 * Date unknown – Olga Sandberg, Swedish ballerina

Deaths

 * January 15 – Joseph Mazzinghi, composer (b. 1765)
 * January 30 – John Addison, double-bass player and composer (b. 1765)
 * April 6 – Francis Johnson, black composer and band-leader
 * May 21 – Giuseppe Baini, church composer and music critic (b. 1775)
 * July 11 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, lyricist (born 1800)
 * July 13 – Johann Baptist Gänsbacher, composer (b. 1778)
 * July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, pianist and composer, son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * September 4 – Oliver Holden, composer and hymn-writer (b. 1765)
 * November 9 – Uri Keeler Hill, composer (b. 1780)
 * December 9 – Franz Seraph von Destouches, composer