1589 in music explained

Events

• November 30 – Luca Marenzio returns to Rome from Florence.
• The wedding of Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany is celebrated with six staged intermezzi, featuring music by Emilio de' Cavalieri and Giovanni de' Bardi, which presaged the first operas, and were a formative influence on the Baroque style.
• Tarquinia Molza is dismissed from the court of Duchess Margherita Gonzaga d'Este because of her affair with the composer Giaches de Wert.

Publications

• Costanzo Antegnati – Second book of masses for six and eight voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Ippolito Baccusi – Third book of masses for five and six voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
• Ludovico Balbi – Italian: Musicale essercitio for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a collection of madrigals
• Girolamo Belli – Latin: Sacrae cantiones (Motets) for eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
• Giulio Belli – First book of madrigals for five and six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• William Byrd
  • Latin: Cantiones Sacrae, Book 1, for five voices (London: Thomas East for William Byrd)
  • Songs of Sundrie Natures for three, four, five, and six voices (London: Thomas East for William Byrd)
  • Madrigals for six voices (London: Thomas East for William Byrd)
• Johannes Eccard – German: Neue Lieder (New Songs) for four and five voices (Königsberg: Georg Osterberger)
• Andrea Gabrieli
  • Third book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), published posthumously, includes a few pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli
  • Italian: Madrigali et ricercari for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), published posthumously
• Jacobus Gallus
  • Latin: Harmoniarum moralium (Moral Harmonies) for four voices, book one (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
  • Latin: Epicedion harmonicum (Prague: Georg Nigrinus), a funeral motet
• Ruggiero Giovannelli – Italian: Gli sdruccioli for four voices, book two (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a book of madrigals
• Francisco Guerrero
  • Second book of motets for four, five, six, and eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
  • Spanish; Castilian: Canciones y villanescas espirituales for three, four, and five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
• Konrad Hagius – German: Die Psalmen Davids for four voices (Dusseldorf: Albert Byuss), sets the translation by Kaspar Ulenberg
• Marc'Antonio Ingegneri – Latin: Liber Sacrarum Cantionum for seven to sixteen voices with instruments (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Paolo Isnardi – First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Giovanni de Macque – Second book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Philippe de Monte – Second book of Italian: madrigali spirituali for six and seven voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Jakob Paix – Latin: Thesaurus Motetarum, a collection of keyboard arrangements of motets by various composers (Stuttgart, Bernhart Jobin)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Latin: Hymni totius anni... for four voices
• Giovanni Maria Papalia – First book of madrigals for five voices (Messina: Fausto Bufalini)
• Giovanni Tommaso Benedictis da Pascarola – Italian: Primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci (Venice: Scipione Riccio)
• Andreas Pevernage – First book of chansons for five voices (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin)
• Salamone Rossi – a collection of 19 canzonette

Classical music

• Giulio Caccini – Italian: Io che dal ciel cader farei la luna

Births

• bap. July 2 – Guilielmus Messaus, Flemish composer (d. 1640)
• date unknown – Giovanni Battista Fontana, violinist and composer (d. 1630)

Deaths

• date unknown – Christian Hollander, kapellmeister at Oudenarde (born c.1510)
• probable
  • Thomas Palfreyman, author and musician
  • Tansen, Hindustani composer and vocalist (born c.1493/1506)