1840 in music

Events

• February 11 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
• April 2 – Première of Ferdinand Hiller's oratorio, Die Zerstörung Jerusalems, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
• June 9 – Franz Liszt gives the first piano recital, in London's Hanover Square Rooms.
• c. June - Felix Mendelssohn releases his score for String Quartet No. 3 in D Major.
• August 6 – First major public performance since the death of Johann Sebastian Bach of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 for organ attributed to him, given by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
• c. October – Richard Wagner is committed to debtors' prison in France while completing his opera Rienzi.
• Robert Schumann's "year of song", in which he writes the two Liederkreis, Frauenliebe und -leben and Dichterliebe. He also marries Clara Wieck.
• The first harmonium is built.
• Anton Schindler's biography of Ludwig van Beethoven is published.
• Michele Carafa becomes Professor of Counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire.
• Édouard Batiste and François Bazin share the Prix de Rome.

Popular music

• Henry Russell & Eliza Cook – "The Old Arm Chair"
• Robert Lucas de Pearsall – "Lay a garland"

Classical music

• Hector Berlioz - Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale 26 July
• Johannes Bernards van Bree - String Quartet No. 2
• Johanna Kinkel - Don Ramiro, Op. 13
• Felix Mendelssohn – Lobgesang
• Giacomo Meyerbeer - Nella
• Robert Schumann
• *Liederkreis, Op. 24
• *Myrthen, Op. 25
• *Lieder und Gesänge volume, Op. 27
• *3 Gedichte, Op. 29
• *3 Gedichte, Op. 30
• *3 Gesänge, Op. 31
• *6 Lieder, Op. 33
• *4 Duets, Op. 34
• *12 Gedichte, Op. 35
• *6 Gedichte, Op. 36
• *Liederkreis, Op. 39
• *5 Lieder, Op. 40
• *Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42
• *3 Duets, Op. 43
• *Romanzen & Balladen volume I, Op. 45
• *Dichterliebe, Op. 48
• *Romanzen & Balladen volume II, Op. 49
• *Romanzen & Balladen volume III, Op. 53
• *Belsatzar, ballad, Op. 57
• Louis Spohr – Symphony no 6 in G major, Op. 116 "Historical"

Opera

• Gaetano Donizetti – "La Favorite" and La Fille du Régiment
• Albert Lortzing – Hans Sachs
• Temistocle Solera – Ildegonda
• Giuseppe Verdi – ''Un giorno di regno''

Births

• January 18 – Ernst Rudorff, composer and music teacher
• February 2 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, pianist and composer
• February 12 – Philippe Decker, conductor and composer
• February 22 - Samuel de Lange, composer and educator
• February 24 – Auguste Götze, German classical singer and vocal pedagogue
• March 8 – Franco Faccio, conductor and composer
• April 12 – Franz Xaver Haberl, musicologist
• May 7 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer
• May 9 – Blanche d'Antigny, singer and actress
• August 1 – Franz Simandl, double-bassist and teacher
• August 28 – Ira D. Sankey, gospel singer and composer
• September 14 – George Whiting, composer
• September 30 – Johan Svendsen, violinist, conductor and composer
• October 18 – Roberto Stagno, operatic tenor
• December 7 – Hermann Goetz, composer
• December 17 – C. F. E. Horneman, composer

Deaths

• March 20 – Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut, lawyer and musician, 68
• May 1 – Giuditta Grisi, operatic mezzo-soprano, 34
• May 10 – Catterino Cavos, organist, conductor and composer, 64
• May 25 – Nikolai Lavrov, operatic baritone, 37
• May 27 – Niccolò Paganini, violinist and composer, 57
• June 5 – William Dance, pianist and violinist, 84
• June 16 – Joseph Kreutzer, violinist, conductor and composer, 49
• September 15 - Franz Pecháček, violinist and composer, 47
• November 19 – Johann Michael Vogl, baritone and composer, 72