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
Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Jeunesse, Op.70
Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
Joseph Mikel – Les lanciers aux bains de mer
John Knowles Paine – Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn in F for Organ
Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg
Camille Saint-Saëns
*Symphony No.2, Op.55
*Ave Maria

Opera

Gaetano Donizetti – Rita, ou Le mari battu
Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen
Charles Gounod – La colombe; premiered August 3 in Baden-Baden
Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina, premièred February 7 in Warsaw
Jacques Offenbach
*Barkouf
*''Le carnaval des revues''

[Musical theater]

Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production, is the first to include the Orphée aux enfers overture, arranged by Carl Binder.

Births

January 7 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer
January 24 – Philippe Bellenot, composer
March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer
May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer
May 17 – August Stradal, pianist
May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, pianist and composer
June 25 – Gustave Charpentier, composer
July 7
*Florence Farr, actress and composer
*Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer
September 1 – Cleofonte Campanini, conductor
September 18 – Alberto Franchetti, opera composer
November 18 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist
November 27 – Victor Ewald, composer
December 4 – Lillian Russell, US singer and actress
December 18 – Edward MacDowell, pianist and composer
December 20 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, dancer and singer
December 24 – Julius Korngold, music critic
December 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter
December 30 – Thomas Bulch, brass-band composer

Deaths

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