1555 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in 1555.
Events
- January 17 – Italian viol player and composer Peter Lupo joins the musicians' guild in London.
- January – Giovanni Animuccia succeeds Palestrina as maestro di cappella of the Cappella Giulia
- Palestrina succeeds Orlande de Lassus as maestro di cappella of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.
- Composer Thomas Whythorne returns to England from travels in Italy and the rest of Europe. The book he writes about his travels is now lost.
- Lorenzo de' Medici orders a violin from Andrea Amati of Cremona.
Music
- Hermann Finck – Two wedding motets:
- *', for five voices
- *', for four voices
Publications
- Jacquet de Berchem – First book of madrigals for four voices
- Pierre Cadéac – First book of motets for four, five, and six voices
- Pierre Certon – 50 Psalms for four voices
- Jhan Gero – Two books of motets
- Claude Gervaise, ed. – Sixth book of dances for four instruments
- Claude Goudimel – Second book of psalms for four, five, and six voices
- Francisco Guerrero – Motets for four and five voices
- Clément Janequin
- *First book of inventions musicales for five voices
- *Second book of inventions musicales
- *Second book of chansons et cantiques spirituels for four voices
- Orlande de Lassus
- *Fourth book for four voices, contains chansons, madrigals, villanelle, and motets, published in Italian and French
- *First book of madrigals for five voices
- Jean de Latre – Sixth book of chansons for four voices
- Jean l'Héritier – Motetti de la Fama for four voices
- Vicente Lusitano – First book of motets for five, six, and eight voices
- Jean Maillard – First book of motets for four, five, and six voices
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – First book of secular madrigals for four voices
- Martin Peudargent
- *First book of motets for five voices
- *Second book of motets for five voices
- Dominique Phinot – First book of psalms for four voices
- Costanzo Porta
- *First book of madrigals for four voices
- *First book of motets for five voices
- Nicola Vicentino – L'antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica, a treatise aimed at revising the chromatic and enharmonic genera of the ancient Greeks.
- Adrian Willaert – 'I sacri e santi salmi, the first printed collection by a single composer of complete polyphonic office settings
Births
- February 25 – Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer
- June 11 – Lodovico Zacconi, composer and music theorist
- probable – Paolo Quagliati, composer of the Roman school
Deaths
- date unknown – Mads Hak, Danish composer
- probable – Jacob Clemens non Papa, Flemish composer