1846 in music

Events

• June 28 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
• August 16 – Gioachino Rossini marries artist's model Olympe Pélissier.
• unknown date – Electric spotlighting is used to simulate sunrise in a production of Rossini's opera Moses at the Paris Opera.

Published popular music

• "Lijepa naša domovino" Croatian national anthem m. Josip Runjanin w. Antun Mihanović
• "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
• Carl Czerny – Impromptu Fugué, Op.776
• Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst – Rondo Papageno, Op.20
• Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 3 in E-flat, Op. 45
• Fanny Mendelssohn
• *4 Lieder for Piano, Op.2
• *Allegretto, H-U 420
• Felix Mendelssohn – Lauda Sion, Op. 73
• Jules Perrot – Catarina or La Fille du Bandit
• 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
• Franz von Suppé – Poet and Peasant

Births

• January 2 – Sándor Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• February 24 – Luigi Denza, composer
• February 26 – Amanda Forsberg, Swedish ballerina
• February 27 – Joaquín Valverde Durán, flautist, conductor and composer
• March 7 – Peppino Turco, songwriter
• March 11 – Constance Bache, composer
• March 29 – Louise Pyk, Swedish opera singer
• April 2 – Albert Périlhou, organist, pianist and composer
• April 5 – Arthur Byron, tenor
• May 2 – Zygmunt Noskowski, conductor and composer
• May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music critic
• June 23 – Anton Svendsen, violinist
• July 2 – Rosina Brandram, opera singer and actress
• July 3 – Achilles Alferaki, composer
• July 22 – Alfred Perceval Graves, lyricist
• July 29 – Sophie Menter, pianist and composer
• August 17 – Marie Jaëll, composer
• August 24 – Paul Rougnon, pianist and composer
• September 21
• *Catherine Chislova, ballerina
• *Juliana Walanika, the "Hawaiian Nightingale", court singer
• October 20 – Johan Amberg, composer
• November 7 – Ignaz Brüll, pianist and composer
• November 23 – Ernst von Schuch, conductor
• December 29 – Rosa Asmundsen, Norwegian singer
• date unknown
• *José María de Arteaga y Pereira, composer
• *Valentina Serova, composer

Deaths

• February 3 – Joseph Weigl the younger, composer and conductor
• February 13 – Johann Bernhard Logier, music teacher
• February 18
• *William Hawes, choirmaster
• *Gottlob Schuberth, musician
• February 22 – Carel Anton Fodor, Dutch pianist and conductor
• April 6 – Domenico Dragonetti, double-bass player
• April 24 – Girolamo Crescentini, castrato singer
• July 23 – Christian Heinrich Rinck, organist and composer
• August 10 – Johann Simon Hermstedt, clarinettist
• August 27 – Gottfried Wilhelm Fink, music theorist
• September 14 – Carl Almenräder, bassoonist and composer
• November 1 – Franz Anton Ries, violinist
• November 30 – Maria Severa Onofriana, Portuguese singer and guitarist, considered the founder of fado
• December 12 – Eliza Flower, musician and composer
• December 25 – Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, Maharajah of Travancore, musician, composer and patron of the arts
• date unknown
• *Dede Efendi, composer
• *Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky, subject of a famous musical hoax
• *Sophie Weber, singer