1843 in music

Events

• February 6 – The Virginia Minstrels perform the first minstrel show.
• 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
• Felix Mendelssohn
• *Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58
• *Die erste Walpurgisnacht, secular cantata, opus 60
• Johann Strauss – Lorelei Rhein Klänge op. 154

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
• March 6 – Arthur Napoleão dos Santos, Brazilian pianist and composer, instrument dealer and music publisher
• March 16 – Louis Gregh, composer and publisher
• April 8 – Asger Hamerik, composer
• May 2 – Karl Michael Ziehrer, Austrian composer and bandmaster
• May 20 – Miguel Marqués, Spanish composer and violinist
• May 29 – Émile Pessard, French composer
• June 13 – Adolf Neuendorff, German-American composer, conductor, pianist and violinist
• June 15 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer
• June 16 – David Popper, cellist and composer
• June 19 – Charles Edouard Lefebvre, French composer
• June 20 – Fyodor Stravinsky, opera singer and father of Igor Stravinsky
• August 4 – Flor van Duyse, Belgian composer and musicologist
• August 5 – James Scott Skinner, Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler, and composer
• August 20 – Christina Nilsson, operatic soprano
• August 26 – Georg August Lumbye, Danish composer, son of Hans Christian Lumbye
• September 4 – Ján Levoslav Bella, Slovak composer
• November 2 – Elek Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• November 28 – Émile Bernard, French composer and organist
• December 3 – Franz Xaver Neruda, Danish cellist and composer
• December 13 – George Stephanescu, Romanian composer
• December 22 – Julius Bechgaard, Danish composer
• 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
• 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
• *Knut Luraas, Hardingfele fiddler