1846 in music

Events

 * June 28 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
 * August 16 – Gioachino Rossini marries artist's model Olympe Pélissier.
 * Electric spotlighting is installed at the Paris Opera.

Published popular music

 * "Lijepa naša domovino" Croatian national anthem m. Josip Runjanin w. Antun Mihanović (written in 1835)
 * "The Indian's Prayer"    w. Anonymous, m. I.B. Woodbury
 * "There's a Good Time Coming" by Stephen Foster
 * "Well-A-Day" by George Linley
 * "When the Swallows Homeward Fly"    w.m. Franz Abt

Oratorio

 * César Franck – Ruth
 * Felix Mendelssohn – Elijah

Classical music

 * Hector Berlioz – La damnation de Faust
 * Anton Bruckner
 * Tantum ergo, WAB 41, 42
 * "Ständchen", WAB 84.2
 * Frederic Chopin
 * Polonaise-Fantaisie
 * Barcarolle
 * Cello Sonata
 * Carl Czerny – Impromptu Fugué, Op.776
 * Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst – Rondo Papageno, Op.20
 * Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 3 in E-flat, Op. 45 (approximately 1846)
 * Fanny Mendelssohn
 * 4 Lieder for Piano, Op.2
 * Allegretto (C♯ minor), H-U 420 (Op.4, No.2)
 * Felix Mendelssohn – Lauda Sion, Op. 73
 * Jules Perrot – Catarina or La Fille du Bandit (ballet)
 * František Škroup – Clarinet Trio, Op.27

Opera

 * Julius Benedict – The Crusaders
 * Eduard James Loder – The Night Dancers
 * Albert Lortzing – Der Waffenschmied
 * Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann – Liden Kirsten, Op.44, premiered May 12 in Copenhagen
 * Saverio Mercadante – Orazi e Curiazi
 * Karel Miry – Wit en zwart (opera in 1 act, with libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premièred on January 18 in Ghent)
 * Franz von Suppé – Poet and Peasant (24 August, Theater an der Wien, Vienna)

Births

 * January 2 – Sándor Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
 * February 24 – Luigi Denza, composer (d. 1922)
 * February 26 – Amanda Forsberg, ballerina (date of death unknown)
 * February 27 – Joaquín Valverde Durán, flautist, conductor and composer (d. 1910)
 * March 7 – Peppino Turco, songwriter (d. 1907)
 * March 11 – Constance Bache, composer (died 1903)
 * March 29 – Louise Pyk, Swedish opera singer (d. 1929)
 * April 2 – Albert Périlhou, organist, pianist and composer (d. 1936)
 * April 5 – Arthur Byron, tenor (d. 1890)
 * May 2 – Zygmunt Noskowski, conductor and composer (d. 1909)
 * May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music critic (d. 1889)
 * June 23 – Anton Svendsen, violinist (died 1930)
 * July 2 – Rosina Brandram, opera singer and actress (d. 1907)
 * July 3 – Achilles Alferaki, composer (died 1919)
 * July 22 – Alfred Perceval Graves, lyricist (died 1931)
 * July 29 – Sophie Menter, pianist and composer (d. 1918)
 * August 17 – Marie Jaëll, composer (died 1925)
 * August 24 – Paul Rougnon, pianist and composer (d. 1934)
 * September 21
 * Catherine Chislova, ballerina (d. 1889)
 * Juliana Walanika, the "Hawaiian Nightingale", court singer (d. 1931)
 * October 20 – Johan Amberg, composer (d. 1928)
 * November 7 – Ignaz Brüll, pianist and composer (d. 1907)
 * November 23 – Ernst von Schuch, conductor (d. 1914)
 * date unknown
 * José María de Arteaga y Pereira, composer (died 1913)
 * Valentina Serova, composer (d. 1924)

Deaths

 * February 3 – Joseph Weigl the younger, composer and conductor (b. 1766)
 * February 13 – Johann Bernhard Logier, music teacher (b. 1777)
 * February 18
 * William Hawes, choirmaster (b. 1785)
 * Gottlob Schuberth, musician (born 1778)
 * February 22 – Carel Anton Fodor, Dutch pianist and conductor (b. 1768)
 * April 16 – Domenico Dragonetti, double-bass player (b. 1763)
 * April 24 – Girolamo Crescentini, castrato singer (b. 1766)
 * July 23 – Christian Heinrich Rinck, organist and composer (b. 1770)
 * August 10 – Johann Simon Hermstedt, clarinettist (b. 1778)
 * August 27 – Gottfried Wilhelm Fink, music theorist (born 1783)
 * September 14 – Carl Almenräder, bassoonist and composer (b. 1786)
 * November 1 – Franz Anton Ries, violinist (b. 1755)
 * November 30 – Maria Severa Onofriana, Portuguese singer and guitarist, considered the founder of fado (b. 1820)
 * December 12 – Eliza Flower, musician and composer (b. 1803)
 * December 25 – Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, Maharajah of Travancore, musician, composer and patron of the arts (b. 1813)
 * date unknown
 * Dede Efendi, composer (b. 1778)
 * Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky, subject of a famous musical hoax
 * Sophie Weber, singer (b. c. 1763)