1844 in music explained

Events

• May 27 – Joseph Joachim plays the solo part in Beethoven's violin concerto with Mendelssohn conducting the London Philharmonic. Later this year he meets Robert and Clara Schumann.
• October 15 – Johann Strauss Jr. makes his performance debut at Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing.
• November 25 – Seth Gingras music by Michael William Balfe and libretto by Alfred Bunn has its American premiere at the Park Theatre, New York City.
• Thomas Tellefsen becomes a pupil of Frédéric Chopin.
• Jacques Offenbach converts to Catholicism and marries Herminie d'Alcain.

Popular music

• "Buffalo Gals" w. The Ethiopian Serenaders (published 1848), m. John Hodges originally entitled "Lubly Fan"
• "The Blue Juniata" Marion Dix Sullivan (w. & m.)
• "Open Thy Lattice, Love" w. George Pope Morris, m. Stephen Collins Foster
• "Skip To My Lou" Trad. US

Classical music

• Charles Valentin-Alkan – Gigue et air de ballet, Op.24
• Hector Berlioz – Roman Carnival Overture
• César Franck – Eglogue, Op.3
• Adolf Gutmann – 2 Nocturnes, Op.8
• Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 2 in B minor, Op. 22
• Felix Mendelssohn
  • Spring Song m.
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream incidental music (including the Wedding March)
  • Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
• Léon de Saint-Lubin – 2 Salonstücke, Op.47
• Louis Spohr – 6 Duettini, Op.127
• Johann Strauss Jr.
  • Sinngedichte
  • Gunstwerber
  • Herzenslust
• Joseph W. Turner – When I Left Thy Shores o Naxos
• William Vincent Wallace – La gondola, Op.18

Opera

• Georges Bousquet – L'Hôtesse de Lyon
• Friedrich Flotow – Alessandro Stradella
• Saverio Mercadante – Leonora, premiered December 5 in Naples
  • • Giuseppe Verdi I due Foscari
  • Ernani

Births

• January 14 – Clara Kathleen Rogers, American singer and composer (d. 1931)
• January 29 – Charles G. Conn, instrument manufacturer (d. 1931)
• February 21 – Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
• March 10 – Pablo de Sarasate, violinist and composer (d. 1908)
• March 18 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer (died 1908)
• March 19 – Auguste Kolár, pianist (died 1878)
• April 9 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• April 30 – Richard Hofmann, composer (died 1918)
• May 8 – Hermann Graedener, conductor and composer (d. 1929)
• May 21 – Amy Fay, pianist (died 1928)
• June 3 – Émile Paladilhe, composer (d. 1926)
• August 24 – Gustav Hinke, oboist (died 1893)
• September 11 - Carl Bohm, pianist and composer (d. 1920)
• September 22 – William Stevenson Hoyte, composer (died 1927)
• December 5 – Sir Frederick Bridge, organist and composer (d. 1924)
• Date unknown – Olga Sandberg, Swedish ballerina

Deaths

• January 15 – Joseph Mazzinghi, composer (b. 1765)
• January 30 – John Addison, double-bass player and composer (b. 1765)
• April 6 – Francis Johnson, black composer and band-leader
• May 21 – Giuseppe Baini, church composer and music critic (b. 1775)
• July 11 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, lyricist (born 1800)
• July 13 – Johann Baptist Gänsbacher, composer (b. 1778)
• July 29 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, pianist and composer, son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• September 4 – Oliver Holden, composer and hymn-writer (b. 1765)
• November 9 – Uri Keeler Hill, composer (b. 1780)
• December 9 – Franz Seraph von Destouches, composer