Events

• October 16 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer of madrigals, murders his wife and her lover in flagrante delicto.
• Approximate peak year of the late Italian madrigal style, as represented by Gesualdo, Luzzaschi, Monteverdi, Marenzio, Monte and others.
• The serpent is invented by Canon Edmé Guillaume in Auxerre, France – it was a common instrument in Western European churches for the next several hundred years.
• Baldassare Donato becomes maestro di cappella at St. Mark's in Venice, taking over on the death of Gioseffo Zarlino.
• Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer, is engaged as string player at court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga at Mantua.
• Emilio de' Cavalieri, Italian composer, produces Tasso's Aminto, likely with his own music, for the Medici, at Carnival in Florence.
• Giovanni Gabrieli arranges the posthumous publication of works by his uncle Andrea Gabrieli, in Venice.

Publications

• Gregor Aichinger – Sacrae cantiones... (Venice: Angelo Gardano), also includes some madrigals
• Blasius Amon – Sacrae cantiones... (Munich: Adam Berg)
• Felice Anerio – First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
• Giammateo Asola – Vespertina omnium solemnitatum psalmodia for twelve voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino), also includes two Magnificats, a Salve Regina, a mass, and five laudi
• Paolo Bellasio – First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Valerio Bona – Litaniae et aliae laudes B. Mariae Virginis (Litanies and other laudas of the Blessed Virgin Mary) for four voices, Simon Tini ed. (Milan: Francesco Tini)
• Giovanni Croce
  • First book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
  • First book of Mascarate piacevole et ridicolose per il carnevale for four, five, six, seven, and eight voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
• Girolamo Dalla Casa – The second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Ricciardo Amadino)
• Giovanni Gabrieli publishes works in the cori spezzati style, in Venice.
• Jacobus Gallus
  • Opus musicum, volume 4 (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
  • Harmoniarum moralium for four voices, book 2 & 3 (Prague: Georg Nigrinus)
• Hans Leo Hassler – Canzonette for four voices (Nuremberg: Katharina Gerlach)
• Paolo Isnardi – First book of masses for six voices (Venice: heirs of Girolamo Scotto)
• Orlande de Lassus, Franco-Flemish composer – Neue teutsche, unnd etliche frantzösische Gesäng for six voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
• Cristofano Malvezzi – Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Giacomo Vincenti)
• Tiburtio Massaino – Third book of motets for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Philippe de Monte
  • Third book of madrigali spirituali for six voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
  • Fourteenth book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Claudio Monteverdi – Il secondo libro de madrigali a cinque voci di Claudio Monteverde Cremonese discepolo del Sig.r Ingegneri (Second book of madrigals for five voices) (Venice: Angelo Gardano)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Fifth book of masses for four, five, and six voices (Rome: Giacomo Bericchia for Francesco Coattino)
• David Palladius
  • Nuptiales cantiones, a book of wedding music, published in Wittenberg by Johann Franck, printed by Matthäus Welack
  • Ein neue Lied dem Hochwirden in Gott..., published in Magdeburg by Johann Franck
• Andreas Pevernage
  • Second book of chansons for five voices (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin)
  • Third book of chansons for five voices (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin)
• Orfeo Vecchi – Masses, Sunday Vespers psalms, Magnificat, motets, and polyphonic psalms for eight voices (Milan: Francesco & the heirs of Simon Tini)
• Orazio Vecchi publishes a book of motets for 10 voices, in Venice.
• Thomas Watson – The first sett, Of Italian Madrigalls Englished, published in London.

Classical music

Births

• July 3 – Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana, singer, organist and composer (d. 1662)
• probable
  • Manuel Machado, composer (d. 1646)
  • Johann Schop, violinist and composer (d. 1667)
  • Loreto Vittori, Italian composer (d. 1670)
  • Caterina Assandra, Italian composer (died c. 1618)

Deaths

• January 20 – Giambattista Benedetti, Italian scientist and music theorist (born 1530)
• February 4 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian music theorist and composer, maestro di cappella at St. Mark's in Venice (born 1517)
• September 20
  • Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (born 1534)
  • Ascanio Trombetti, Italian composer (born 1544)
• probable – Maddalena Casulana, Italian lutenist, singer and composer (born c 1544)