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 – Musicale essercitio for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), a collection of madrigals
Girolamo Belli – 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
- 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 – 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
- Madrigali et ricercari for four voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano), published posthumously
Jacobus Gallus
- Harmoniarum moralium (Moral Harmonies) for four voices, book one (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
- Epicedion harmonicum (Prague: Georg Nigrinus), a funeral motet
Ruggiero Giovannelli – 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)
- Canciones y villanescas espirituales for three, four, and five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
Konrad Hagius – Die Psalmen Davids for four voices (Dusseldorf: Albert Byuss), sets the translation by Kaspar Ulenberg
Marc'Antonio Ingegneri – 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 madrigali spirituali for six and seven voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
Jakob Paix – Thesaurus Motetarum, a collection of keyboard arrangements of motets by various composers (Stuttgart, Bernhart Jobin)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Hymni totius anni... for four voices
Giovanni Maria Papalia – First book of madrigals for five voices (Messina: Fausto Bufalini)
Giovanni Tommaso Benedictis da Pascarola – 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 – 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)