1846 in music

Events

• June 28 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
• August 16 – Gioachino Rossini marries artist's model Olympe Pélissier.
• Electric spotlighting is installed at the Paris Opera.

  Published popular music

• "The Indian's Prayer" w. Anonymous, m. I.B. Woodbury
• "When the Swallows Homeward Fly" w.m. Franz Abt
• "Lijepa naša domovino" Croatian national anthem m. Josip Runjanin w. Antun Mihanović

  [Oratorio]

• Felix Mendelssohn – Elijah
• César Franck – Ruth

  Classical music

• Hector Berlioz – La damnation de Faust
• Anton Bruckner
• *Tantum ergo, WAB 41, 42
• *"Ständchen", WAB 84.2
• Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 3 in E-flat, Op. 45
• Felix Mendelssohn – Lauda Sion, Op. 73
• Jules Perrot – Catarina or La Fille du Bandit
• Frederic Chopin
• *Polonaise-Fantaisie
• *Barcarolle
• *Cello Sonata

  Opera

• Julius Benedict – The Crusaders
• Albert Lortzing – Der Waffenschmied
• 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, ballerina
• February 27 – Joaquín Valverde Durán, flautist, conductor and composer
• March 7 – Peppino Turco, songwriter
• March 29 – Louise Pyk, Swedish opera singer
• April 2 – Albert Périlhou, organist, pianist and composer
• May 2 – Zygmunt Noskowski, conductor and composer
• May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music critic
• July 2 – Rosina Brandram, opera singer and actress
• July 29 – Sophie Menter, pianist and 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
• date unknown – 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
• February 22 – Carel Anton Fodor, Dutch pianist and conductor
• April 16 – 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
• November 1 – Franz Anton Ries, violinist
• 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