1846 in music

List of years in music (table)
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Events

• June 28 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
• August 16 – Gioachino Rossini marries artist's model Olympe Pélissier.
• Electric spotlighting is installed at the Paris Opera.

Published popular music

• "Lijepa naša domovino" Croatian national anthem m. Josip Runjanin w. Antun Mihanović (written in 1835)
• "The Indian's Prayer"     w. Anonymous, m. I.B. Woodbury
• "There's a Good Time Coming" by Stephen Foster
• "Well-A-Day" by George Linley
• "When the Swallows Homeward Fly"     w.m. Franz Abt

Oratorio

• César Franck – Ruth
• Felix Mendelssohn – Elijah

Classical music

• Hector Berlioz – La damnation de Faust
• Anton Bruckner
  • Tantum ergo, WAB 41, 42
  • "Ständchen", WAB 84.2
• Frederic Chopin
  • Polonaise-Fantaisie
  • Barcarolle
  • Cello Sonata
• Carl Czerny – Impromptu Fugué, Op.776
• Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst – Rondo Papageno, Op.20
• Henry Litolff – Concerto Symphonique No 3 in E-flat, Op. 45 (approximately 1846)
• Fanny Mendelssohn
  • 4 Lieder for Piano, Op.2
  • Allegretto (C♯ minor), H-U 420 (Op.4, No.2)
• Felix Mendelssohn – Lauda Sion, Op. 73
• Jules Perrot – Catarina or La Fille du Bandit (ballet)
• František Škroup – Clarinet Trio, Op.27

Opera

• Julius Benedict – The Crusaders
• Eduard James Loder – The Night Dancers
• Albert Lortzing – Der Waffenschmied
• Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann – Liden Kirsten, Op.44, premiered May 12 in Copenhagen
• Saverio Mercadante – Orazi e Curiazi
• Karel Miry – Wit en zwart (opera in 1 act, with libretto by Hippoliet van Peene, premièred on January 18 in Ghent)
• Franz von Suppé – Poet and Peasant (24 August, Theater an der Wien, Vienna)

Births

• January 2 – Sándor Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
• February 24 – Luigi Denza, composer (d. 1922)
• February 26 – Amanda Forsberg, ballerina (date of death unknown)
• February 27 – Joaquín Valverde Durán, flautist, conductor and composer (d. 1910)
• March 7 – Peppino Turco, songwriter (d. 1907)
• March 11 – Constance Bache, composer (died 1903)
• March 29 – Louise Pyk, Swedish opera singer (d. 1929)
• April 2 – Albert Périlhou, organist, pianist and composer (d. 1936)
• May 2 – Zygmunt Noskowski, conductor and composer (d. 1909)
• May 22 – Francis Hueffer, music critic (d. 1889)
• June 23 – Anton Svendsen, violinist (died 1930)
• July 2 – Rosina Brandram, opera singer and actress (d. 1907)
• July 3 – Achilles Alferaki, composer (died 1919)
• July 22 – Alfred Perceval Graves, lyricist (died 1931)
• July 29 – Sophie Menter, pianist and composer (d. 1918)
• August 17 – Marie Jaëll, composer (died 1925)
• August 24 – Paul Rougnon, pianist and composer (d. 1934)
• September 21
  • Catherine Chislova, ballerina (d. 1889)
  • Juliana Walanika, the "Hawaiian Nightingale", court singer (d. 1931)
• October 20 – Johan Amberg, composer (d. 1928)
• November 7 – Ignaz Brüll, pianist and composer (d. 1907)
• November 23 – Ernst von Schuch, conductor (d. 1914)
• date unknown
  • José María de Arteaga y Pereira, composer (died 1913)
  • Valentina Serova, composer (d. 1924)

Deaths

• February 3 – Joseph Weigl the younger, composer and conductor (b. 1766)
• February 13 – Johann Bernhard Logier, music teacher (b. 1777)
• February 18
  • William Hawes, choirmaster (b. 1785)
  • Gottlob Schuberth, musician (born 1778)
• February 22 – Carel Anton Fodor, Dutch pianist and conductor (b. 1768)
• April 16 – Domenico Dragonetti, double-bass player (b. 1763)
• April 24 – Girolamo Crescentini, castrato singer (b. 1766)
• July 23 – Christian Heinrich Rinck, organist and composer (b. 1770)
• August 10 – Johann Simon Hermstedt, clarinettist (b. 1778)
• August 27 – Gottfried Wilhelm Fink, music theorist (born 1783)
• September 14 – Carl Almenräder, bassoonist and composer (b. 1786)
• November 1 – Franz Anton Ries, violinist (b. 1755)
• November 30 – Maria Severa Onofriana, Portuguese singer and guitarist, considered the founder of fado (b. 1820)
• December 12 – Eliza Flower, musician and composer (b. 1803)
• December 25 – Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, Maharajah of Travancore, musician, composer and patron of the arts (b. 1813)
• date unknown
  • Dede Efendi, composer (b. 1778)
  • Mykola Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky, subject of a famous musical hoax
  • Sophie Weber, singer (b. c. 1763)