Events

May 27 – Joseph Joachim plays the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto with Mendelssohn conducting the London Philharmonic. Later this year he meets Robert and Clara Schumann.
October 15 – Johann Strauss Jr. makes his performance debut at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing.
November 25 – Seth Gingras music by Michael William Balfe and libretto by Alfred Bunn has its American premiere at the Park Theatre, New York City.
Thomas Tellefsen becomes a pupil of Frédéric Chopin.
Jacques Offenbach converts to Catholicism and marries Herminie d'Alcain.

Popular music

"Buffalo Gals" w. The Ethiopian Serenaders (published 1848), m. John Hodges originally entitled "Lubly Fan"
"The Blue Juniata" Marion Dix Sullivan (w. & m.)
"Open Thy Lattice, Love" w. George Pope Morris, m. Stephen Collins Foster
"Skip To My Lou" Trad. US

Charles Valentin-Alkan – Gigue et air de ballet, Op.24
Hector Berlioz – Roman Carnival Overture
César Franck – Eglogue, Op.3
Adolf Gutmann – 2 Nocturnes, Op.8
Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 2 in B minor, Op. 22
Felix Mendelssohn
- Spring Song m.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream incidental music (including the Wedding March)
- Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Léon de Saint-Lubin – 2 Salonstücke, Op.47
Louis Spohr – 6 Duettini, Op.127
Johann Strauss Jr.
Joseph W. Turner – When I Left Thy Shores o Naxos
William Vincent Wallace – La gondola, Op.18

January 15 – Joseph Mazzinghi, composer (b. 1765)
January 30 – John Addison, double-bass player and composer (b. 1765)
April 6 – Francis Johnson, black composer and band-leader
May 21 – Giuseppe Baini, church composer and music critic (b. 1775)
July 11 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, lyricist (born 1800)
July 13 – Johann Baptist Gänsbacher, composer (b. 1778)
July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, pianist and composer, son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
September 4 – Oliver Holden, composer and hymn-writer (b. 1765)
November 9 – Uri Keeler Hill, composer (b. 1780)
December 9 – Franz Seraph von Destouches, composer