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 first known 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

• "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
• Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
• Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg

  Opera

• Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen
• Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina

  [Musical theater]

• Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production

  Births

• January 7 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer
• March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer
• May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer
• 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 6 – 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 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter
• December 30 – Thomas Bulch, brass-band composer

  Deaths

• January 26 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer
• 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
• *James Barr, composer
• *Veena Kuppayyar, composer of Carnatic music