1860 in music

Events

 * January 1 – Julius Friedländer buys the Leipzig music publishing house, CF Peters.
 * February 9 – The second "Querelle des Bouffons" is sparked when Hector Berlioz criticizes Richard Wagner's music in the Journal des débats. Wagner responds on February 15.
 * February 10 – The Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hamburg.
 * March 3 – The Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11 by Johannes Brahms is given its first public performance in Hanover.
 * April 9 – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville records himself singing "Au Clair de la Lune" – the earliest known intelligible recording of the human voice.
 * May 4 – Charles Bacon's bronze statue of the late Felix Mendelssohn is unveiled at Crystal Palace in London.
 * September 14 – Franz Liszt makes a will.
 * October 22 – The city of Weimar pays tribute to Franz Liszt with a torchlight procession and honorary citizenship.
 * The first Viennese operetta, Das Pensionat by Franz von Suppé, is premièred at the Theater an der Wien.
 * Richard Wagner essay on "Music of the Future" is first published, in French translation.
 * First official National Eisteddfod of Wales is held at Denbigh.

Published popular music

 * "Dixie" by Dan Emmett
 * "Down Among the Cane-Brakes" by Stephen Foster
 * "Kalinka" by Ivan Larionov
 * "Lincoln and Liberty" words by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.
 * "Mary Of Argyle" words by Charles Jefferys, music by Sidney Nelson
 * "Old Black Joe" by Stephen Foster
 * "Virginia Belle" by Stephen Foster
 * "When the Corn Is Waving, Annie Dear" by Charles Blamphin
 * "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" words by Maud Irving, music by Joseph Philbrick Webster

Classical music

 * Johannes Brahms
 * Vier Gesänge, for women's chorus, two horns and harp, Op. 17
 * String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
 * Karl Davydov – Fantasie über russische Lieder, Op.7
 * Eduard Franck
 * Piano Trio No.2 in E♭ major, Op.22
 * Violin Sonata No.2, Op.23
 * Joseph Mikel – Les lanciers aux bains de mer
 * Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Jeunesse, Op.70
 * Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
 * John Knowles Paine – Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn in F for Organ (Op.3, No.1)
 * Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Symphony No.2, Op.55
 * Ave Maria

Opera

 * Gaetano Donizetti – Rita, ou Le mari battu (Posthumously discovered, premiered, and published)
 * Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen (libretto by Prudens van Duyse, premiered at Ghent)
 * Charles Gounod – La colombe, premiered August 3 in Baden-Baden
 * Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina
 * Jacques Offenbach
 * Barkouf
 * Le carnaval des revues

Musical theater

 * Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production

Births

 * January 7 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)
 * January 24 – Philippe Bellenot, composer (died 1928)
 * March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer (d. 1903)
 * May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer (d. 1932)
 * May 17 – August Stradal, pianist (died 1930)
 * May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, pianist and composer (d. 1909)
 * June 25 – Gustave Charpentier, composer (d. 1956)
 * July 7
 * Florence Farr, actress and composer (d. 1917)
 * Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
 * September 1 – Cleofonte Campanini, conductor (d. 1919)
 * September 18 – Alberto Franchetti, opera composer (d. 1942)
 * November 18 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist (d. 1941)
 * November 27 – Victor Ewald, composer (d. 1935)
 * December 4 – Lillian Russell, US singer and actress (d. 1922)
 * December 18 – Edward MacDowell, pianist and composer (d. 1908)
 * December 20 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, dancer and singer (d. 1904)
 * December 24 – Julius Korngold, music critic (died 1945)
 * December 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter (d. 1936)
 * December 30 – Thomas Bulch, brass-band composer (d. 1930)

Deaths

 * January 26 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer (b. 1804)
 * February 24 – James Barr, composer (born 1779)
 * March 6 – Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, French cellist and composer (b. 1783)
 * March 14 – Louis Antoine Jullien, conductor and composer (b. 1812)
 * May 21 – Johannes Frederik Fröhlich, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1806)
 * June 21 – Mykola Markevych, musician, composer and poet (b. 1804)
 * 10 August – Sara Augusta Malmborg, singer, pianist and painter (b. 1810)
 * August 26 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (b. 1789)
 * September 25 – Carl Friedrich Zöllner, composer and choirmaster (b. 1800)
 * November 27 – Ludwig Rellstab, critic (b. 1799)
 * date unknown
 * James Barr, composer (b. 1779)
 * Veena Kuppayyar, composer of Carnatic music (b. 1798)