1843 in music

Events

• February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show (Bowery Amphitheatre, New York City).
• May 22 – Gottfried Kinkel marries fellow musician Johanna Mockel.
• November 13 – Gaetano Donizetti's final opera Dom Sébastien is premiered at the Paris Opera.
• December 26 – Following the première of his last opera, Hernani, Alberto Mazzucato retires from composing in order to become a full-time music teacher.
• Approximate date – Euphonium invented.
• August Conradi becomes organist of the Invalidenhaus, Berlin.
• Hector Berlioz writes Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, Op. 10

Popular music

• "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" by Thomas Becket
• "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls" w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe from the light opera The Bohemian Girl
• "Old Dan Tucker", usually attributed to Dan Emmett
• "Then You'll Remember Me" w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe from the light opera The Bohemian Girl

Classical music

• Dionisio Aguado – Nuevo método para guitarra, Op. 6
• Frédéric Chopin
  • Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, opus 51
  • Ballade No. 4 in F minor, opus 52
• August Conradi – Symphony No. 1
• Niels Gade – Symphony No. 2
• Franz Liszt – Album Leaf in E major (S. 166a)
• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58
  • Die erste Walpurgisnacht, secular cantata, opus 60 (première in Leipzig, February 2)
• Robert Schumann − Paradise and the Peri, secular oratorio, opus 50 (premiere in Leipzig, December)
• Johann Strauss – Lorelei Rhein Klänge op. 154 ("Echoes of the Rhine Loreley")

London debut of "Don Pasquale"

Opera

• 27 November – Michael William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl debuts in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
• Julius Benedict – The Bride of Venice
• Gaetano Donizetti – Don Pasquale
• Giovanni Pacini – Medea
• Giuseppe Verdi – I Lombardi
• Richard Wagner – The Flying Dutchman
• Fromental Halévy – Charles VI

Births

• February 10 – Adelina Patti, soprano (died 1919)
• March 6 – Arthur Napoleão dos Santos, Brazilian pianist and composer, instrument dealer and music publisher (died 1925)
• March 16 – Louis Gregh, composer and publisher (died 1915)
• April 8 – Asger Hamerik, composer (died 1923)
• May 2 – Karl Michael Ziehrer, Austrian composer and bandmaster (died 1922)
• May 20 – Miguel Marqués, Spanish composer and violinist (died 1918)
• May 29 – Émile Pessard, French composer (died 1917)
• June 13 – Adolf Neuendorff, German-American composer, conductor, pianist and violinist (died 1897)
• June 15 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer (died 1907)
• June 16 – David Popper, cellist and composer (died 1913)
• June 19 – Charles Edouard Lefebvre, French composer (died 1917)
• June 20 – Fyodor Stravinsky, opera singer and father of Igor Stravinsky (died 1902)
• August 4 – Flor van Duyse, Belgian composer and musicologist (died 1910)
• August 5 – James Scott Skinner, Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler, and composer (died 1927)
• August 20 – Christina Nilsson, operatic soprano (died 1921)
• August 26 – Georg August Lumbye, Danish composer, son of Hans Christian Lumbye (died 1922)
• September 4 – Ján Levoslav Bella, Slovak composer (died 1936)
• November 2 – Elek Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel (died 1893)
• November 28 – Émile Bernard, French composer and organist (died 1902)
• December 3 – Franz Xaver Neruda, Danish cellist and composer (died 1915)
• December 13 – George Stephanescu, Romanian composer (died 1925)
• December 22 – Julius Bechgaard, Danish composer (died 1917)
• date unknown – Eduard Holst, Danish composer

Deaths

• January 11
  • Antoine Bournonville, dancer, singer and actor, 82
  • Francis Scott Key, poet and songwriter, 63
• March 9 – Christian August Pohlenz, conductor and composer, 52
• April 14 – Josef Lanner, Viennese composer, 42 (typhoid)
• May 3 – Franz Xaver Gebel, conductor, composer and music teacher, 55 or 56
• May 4 – Eduard Rottmanner, organist and composer, 33
• May 12 – Johann Georg Lickl, composer and piano teacher, 74
• July – Nehemiah Shumway, composer of sacred music, 81
• July 29 – Domenico Reina, operatic and bel canto tenor, 47
• August 29 – Charles Jane Ashley, cellist and secretary of the Royal Society of Musicians, 70
• date unknown
  • Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, pianist (born c.1770)
  • Knut Luraas, Hardingfele fiddler (born 1782)