1847 in music

Events

 * February 28 – Fire breaks out during a performance and destroys the Großherzoglichen Hoftheater in Baden. Most of the audience perishes because the theatre doors cannot be opened from the inside.
 * March 3 – I Lombardi alla prima crociata is performed at Palmo's Opera House in New York City, the first presentation of a Verdi opera in the United States.
 * March 14 – Verdi's Macbeth is premiėred at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy.
 * Franz Liszt gives up performing in public.
 * Vladimir Stasov publishes a monograph on Mikhail Glinka's use of folk motifs in his music.

Popular music

 * "Cantique de Noël" ("O Holy Night") w. (Fr) Placide Cappeau (Eng) John Sullivan Dwight m. Adolphe Adam
 * "Dinah Dear" by Philip Klitz
 * "Miss Ginger" by Philip Klitz
 * "Roll On Silver Moon" by Joseph W. Turner

Classical music

 * Franz Berwald – A Rustic Wedding
 * Frederic Chopin
 * Waltz Opus 64 No.1 (Minute)
 * Waltz Op. 64. No. 2
 * August Freyer – Concert Variations, Op.2
 * Franz Liszt
 * Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
 * Glanes de Woronince
 * Most of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses
 * Felix Mendelssohn – String Quartet No. 6
 * Jacques Offenbach – Concerto Militaire for cello and orchestra
 * Robert Schumann
 * Symphony No. 2
 * Piano Trio No. 1
 * Henryk Wieniawski – Grand Caprice Fantastique Op. 1

Opera

 * Francisco Asenjo Barbieri – Il Buontempone
 * Giovanni Bottesini – Cristoforo Colombo
 * Friedrich von Flotow – Martha
 * Ivar Hallstrom – Hvita frun på Drottningholm (libretto by Frans Hedberg)
 * Karel Miry – Brigitta (opera in 3 acts, libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premiered on June 27 in Ghent)
 * Giuseppe Verdi – Macbeth
 * William Vincent Wallace – Matilda of Hungary

Births

 * January 1 – Rudolf Tillmetz, flute virtuoso, music teacher and composer (d. 1915)
 * February 15 – Robert Fuchs, composer and music teacher (d. 1927)
 * March 2 – Richard Temple, singer, actor and theatre director (d. 1912)
 * March 9 – Axel Grandjean, conductor and composer (d. 1932)
 * June 28 – Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, composer (d. 1927)
 * July 12 – Karl Heinrich Barth, pianist and music teacher (d. 1922)
 * July 21 – Víctor Mirecki Larramat, cellist and music teacher (d. 1921)
 * October 21 – Giuseppe Giacosa, librettist for some of Puccini's operas (d. 1906)
 * November 1 – Emma Albani, soprano (d. 1930)
 * November 30 – August Klughardt, conductor and composer (d. 1902)
 * December 1 – Agathe Backer Grøndahl, pianist and composer (d. 1907)
 * December 9 – George Grossmith, comic writer and performer (d. 1912)
 * December 18 – Augusta Holmès, composer (d. 1903)
 * December 28 – James Frederick Swift, organist and composer (d. 1931)
 * date unknown – Emma Fursch-Madi, operatic soprano (d. 1894)

Deaths

 * January 6 – Tyagaraja, Carnatic music composer (b. 1767)
 * April 23 – Erik Gustaf Geijer, writer and composer (b. 1783)
 * May 14 – Fanny Mendelssohn, pianist and composer (b. 1805; stroke)
 * June 11 – Heinrich Bärmann, clarinet virtuoso (b. 1784)
 * June 18 – Lisette Stenberg, actress and musician (b. 1770)
 * July 19 – Johann Wilhelm Wilms, composer (b. 1772)
 * September 4 – František Vladislav Hek, writer and composer (b. 1769)
 * September 25 – Emma Albertazzi, English contralto (b. 1814)
 * November 4 – Felix Mendelssohn, pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1809)
 * November 20 – Henry Francis Lyte, hymnist (born 1793)
 * date unknown – Cyrill Demian, piano and organ maker (b. 1772)
 * date unknown – Francesco Molino, guitarist and composer (b. 1775)