# 1840 in music

This article is about music-related events in 1840.

## Events

* February 11 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Regiment premieres in Paris.
* April 2 – Première of Ferdinand Hiller's oratorio, Die Zerstörung Jerusalems, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
* June 9 – Franz Liszt gives the first piano recital, in London's Hanover Square Rooms.
* c. June - Felix Mendelssohn releases his score for String Quartet No. 3 in D Major.
* August 6 – First major public performance since the death of Johann Sebastian Bach of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 for organ attributed to him, given by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig; Robert Schumann is in the audience.
* c. October – Richard Wagner is committed to debtors' prison in France while completing his opera Rienzi.
* Robert Schumann's "year of song", in which he writes the two Liederkreis, Frauenliebe und -leben and Dichterliebe. He also marries Clara Wieck.
* The first harmonium is built.
* Anton Schindler's biography of Ludwig van Beethoven is published.
* Michele Carafa becomes Professor of Counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire.
* Édouard Batiste and François Bazin share the Prix de Rome.

## Popular music

* Henry Russell (music) & Eliza Cook (lyrics) – "The Old Arm Chair"
* Robert Lucas de Pearsall – "Lay a garland"

## Classical music

* Hector Berlioz - Grande symphonie funebre et triomphale 26 July
* Johannes Bernards van Bree - String Quartet No. 2
* Johanna Kinkel - Don Ramiro, Op. 13
* Felix Mendelssohn – Lobgesang (Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major)
* Giacomo Meyerbeer - Nella
* Robert Schumann
** Liederkreis, Op. 24
** Myrthen, Op. 25
** Lieder und Gesänge volume, Op. 27
** 3 Gedichte, Op. 29
** 3 Gedichte, Op. 30
** 3 Gesänge, Op. 31
** 6 Lieder, Op. 33
** 4 Duets, Op. 34
** 12 Gedichte, Op. 35
** 6 Gedichte, Op. 36
** Liederkreis, Op. 39
** 5 Lieder, Op. 40
** Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42
** 3 Duets, Op. 43
** Romanzen & Balladen volume I, Op. 45
** Dichterliebe, Op. 48
** Romanzen & Balladen volume II, Op. 49
** Romanzen & Balladen volume III, Op. 53
** Belsatzar, ballad, Op. 57
* Louis Spohr – Symphony no 6 in G major, Op. 116 "Historical"

## Opera

* Gaetano Donizetti – "La Favorite" and La Fille du Régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment)
* Albert Lortzing – Hans Sachs
* Temistocle Solera – Ildegonda
* Giuseppe Verdi – Un giorno di regno

## Births

* January 18 – Ernst Rudorff, composer and music teacher (d. 1918)
* February 2 – Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, pianist and composer (d. 1910)
* February 12 – Philippe Decker, conductor and composer (d. 1881)
* February 22 - Samuel de Lange, composer and educator (d. 1911)
* February 24 – Auguste Götze, German classical singer and vocal pedagogue (d. 1908)
* March 8 – Franco Faccio, conductor and composer (d. 1891)
* April 12 – Franz Xaver Haberl, musicologist (d. 1910)
* May 7 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer (d. 1893)
* May 9 – Blanche d'Antigny, singer and actress (d. 1874)
* August 1 – Franz Simandl, double-bassist and teacher (d. 1912)
* August 28 – Ira D. Sankey, gospel singer and composer (d. 1908)
* September 14 – George Whiting, composer (d. 1923)
* September 30 – Johan Svendsen, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1911)
* October 18 – Roberto Stagno, operatic tenor (d. 1897)
* December 7 – Hermann Goetz, composer (d. 1876)
* December 17 – C. F. E. Horneman, composer (d. 1906)

## Deaths

* March 20 – Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut, lawyer and musician, 68
* May 1 – Giuditta Grisi, operatic mezzo-soprano, 34
* May 10 – Catterino Cavos, organist, conductor and composer, 64
* May 25 – Nikolai Lavrov, operatic baritone, 37
* May 27 – Niccolò Paganini, violinist and composer, 57
* June 5 – William Dance, pianist and violinist, 84
* June 16 – Joseph Kreutzer, violinist, conductor and composer, 49
* September 15 - Franz Pecháček, violinist and composer, 47
* November 19 – Johann Michael Vogl, baritone and composer, 72