Events

• January 1 – Arnold von Bruck retires from his position as Kapellmeister at the Viennese court.
• May - Cipriano de Rore appointed maestro do cappella at the court in Ferrara, a post he held until 1559.
• Jacquet de Berchem appointed maestro di cappella at Verona Cathedral

Publications

• Giulio Abondante - Intabolatura di Iulio Abondante sopra el lauto de ogni sorte de balli, the first of three extant books of lute music published in Venice by Antonio Gardano
• Paolo Aretino – Pie ac devotissime Lamentationes Hyeremie prophete tum etiam Passiones Hiesu Christi Dominice Palmarum ac Veneris Sancti (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a collection of litanies
• Jacquet de Berchem – First book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
• Simon Boyleau – Madrigals for four voices
• Antoine de Mornable
  • Motetorum Musicalium, book 1, for four voices (Paris: Pierre Attaingnant)
  • 17 Psalms for four voices (Paris: Pierre Attaingnant)
• Alonso Mudarra - 'Three Books of Music for vihuela in tablature' (Seville: Juan de Leon)
• Caspar Othmayr – Epitaphium D. Martini Lutheri for five voices (Nuremberg: Johann vom Berg & Ulrich Neuber)
• Girolamo Parabosco – Madrigali a cinque voci (Venice: Antonio Gardano)

Classical music

• Giovan Tomaso di Maio – Canzone villanesche a 3, book 1

Births

• date unknown –
• September 3 – Isabella Bendidio, Italian noblewoman and singer (died 1610)
• October 5 – Cyriakus Schneegass, German hymnwriter (d. 1597)^[1]

date unknown

• • Luca Bati, Italian composer (died 1608)
  • Joachim a Burck, German hymn writer, composer, organist and Kantor (died 1610)

Deaths

• Fridolin Sicher (56), organist and composer^[2]