# 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
* Joseph Mikel – Les lanciers aux bains de mer
* Louis Moreau Gottschalk – Jeunesse, Op.70
* Franz Liszt – First of the Mephisto Waltzes
* John Knowles Paine – Concert Variations on the Austrian Hymn in F for Organ (Op.3, No.1)
* Anton Rubinstein – Soirées à Saint-Pétersbourg
* Camille Saint-Saëns
** Symphony No.2, Op.55
** Ave Maria

## Opera

* Gaetano Donizetti – Rita, ou Le mari battu (Posthumously discovered, premiered, and published)
* Flor van Duyse – Teniers te Grimbergen (libretto by Prudens van Duyse, premiered at Ghent)
* Charles Gounod – La colombe, premiered August 3 in Baden-Baden
* Stanislaw Moniuszko – Hrabina
* Jacques Offenbach
** Barkouf
** Le carnaval des revues

## Musical theater

* Orphée Aux Enfers, Vienna production

## Births

* January 7 – Emanuil Manolov, Bulgarian composer (d. 1902)
* January 24 – Philippe Bellenot, composer (died 1928)
* March 13 – Hugo Wolf, composer (d. 1903)
* May 5 – Pietro Floridia, composer (d. 1932)
* May 17 – August Stradal, pianist (died 1930)
* May 29 – Isaac Albéniz, pianist and composer (d. 1909)
* June 25 – Gustave Charpentier, composer (d. 1956)
* July 7
** Florence Farr, actress and composer (d. 1917)
** Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
* September 1 – Cleofonte Campanini, conductor (d. 1919)
* September 18 – Alberto Franchetti, opera composer (d. 1942)
* November 18 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist (d. 1941)
* November 27 – Victor Ewald, composer (d. 1935)
* December 4 – Lillian Russell, US singer and actress (d. 1922)
* December 18 – Edward MacDowell, pianist and composer (d. 1908)
* December 20 – Dan Leno, English music hall comedian, dancer and singer (d. 1904)
* December 24 – Julius Korngold, music critic (died 1945)
* December 28 – Harry B. Smith, US songwriter (d. 1936)
* December 30 – Thomas Bulch, brass-band composer (d. 1930)

## Deaths

* January 26 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer (b. 1804)
* February 24 – James Barr, composer (born 1779)
* March 6 – Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, French cellist and composer (b. 1783)
* March 14 – Louis Antoine Jullien, conductor and composer (b. 1812)
* May 21 – Johannes Frederik Fröhlich, violinist, conductor and composer (b. 1806)
* June 21 – Mykola Markevych, musician, composer and poet (b. 1804)
* 10 August – Sara Augusta Malmborg, singer, pianist and painter (b. 1810)
* August 26 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (b. 1789)
* September 25 – Carl Friedrich Zöllner, composer and choirmaster (b. 1800)
* November 27 – Ludwig Rellstab, critic (b. 1799)
* date unknown
** James Barr, composer (b. 1779)
** Veena Kuppayyar, composer of Carnatic music (b. 1798)