- Feb 17 Friedrich Wilhelm Markull, German composer and muscian, born in Reichenbach, Prussia (1887)
- Mar 19 Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor, born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1891)
- Mar 27 George Elvey, English composer, born in Canterbury, England (d. 1893)
- Apr 13 William Sterndale Bennett, English composer, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire (d. 1875)
- May 14 Gualtiero Sanelli, Italian composer, born in Parma (d. 1861)
- Jul 24 Józef Michał Poniatowski, Poilsh-Italian operatic tenor and composer (d. 1873)
- Aug 16 Joseph Robinson, Irish singer, organist and composer, born in Dublin (d. 1898)
- Sep 1 Gustav Schmidt, composer
- Sep 4 François Bazin, French composer, born in Marseille, France (d. 1878)
- Sep 15 Edward Wolff, Polish pianist and composer, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1880)
- Sep 25 Anton de Kontski [Antoni Kątski], Polish-American pianist and composer (Awakening Of The Lion), born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1899) [some sources cite birth as 1817-10-27]
- Oct 6 William Batchelder Bradbury, American composer, born in York, Maine (d. 1868)
- Nov 14 John Curwen, English Congregationalist minister and founder of Tonic sol-fa music system, born in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire (d. 1880)
- Nov 17 August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian Czech musicologist (History of Music), born in Vysoké Mýto, Bohemia
- Nov 29 Carl Binder, Austrian composer, born in Vienna (d. 1860)