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.
• September – Franz Liszt gives up performing in public.

Publications

• Vladimir Stasov publishes a monograph on Mikhail Glinka's use of folk motifs in his music.

Popular music

• "Cantique de Noël" w. Placide Cappeau 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
• *Cello Sonata
• 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
• Karel Miry – Brigitta
• Jacque Offenbach - L'alcôve
• Giuseppe Verdi – Macbeth
• William Vincent Wallace – ''Matilda of Hungary''

Births

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

Deaths

• January 6 – Tyagaraja, Carnatic music composer
• April 23 – Erik Gustaf Geijer, writer and composer
• May 14 – Fanny Mendelssohn, pianist and composer
• June 11 – Heinrich Bärmann, clarinet virtuoso
• June 18 – Lisette Stenberg, actress and musician
• July 19 – Johann Wilhelm Wilms, composer
• September 4 – František Vladislav Hek, writer and composer
• September 25 – Emma Albertazzi, English contralto
• November 4 – Felix Mendelssohn, pianist, conductor and composer
• November 20 – Henry Francis Lyte, hymnist
• date unknown – Francesco Molino, guitarist and composer