- Jan 3 Jaak-Nikolaas Lemmens, Flemish composer
- Jan 5 William Rockstro, composer
- Jan 21 Alexandre Edouard Goria, composer
- Jan 27 Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo, French composer (Symphonie Espagnole)
- Feb 7 Richard Genee, composer
- Mar 16 William Henry Monk, composer
- May 17 Charlotte Sainton-Dolby, English contralto and composer, born in London (d. 1885)
- Jun 26 Frederick Bowen Jewson, composer
- Aug 7 Faustina Hasse Hodges, composer
- Aug 14 Karel Miry, Belgian composer (De Vlaamse Leeuw), born in Ghent (d. 1889)
- Aug 26 Wilhelm Troszel, composer
- Sep 10 Adolf von Doss, composer
- Oct 5 Feliks Jaronski, composer
- Oct 13 Immanuel Faisst, composer
- Oct 21 Pasqual Juan Emilio Arrieta y Corera, composer
- Nov 4 Karel Komzák I, Bohemian composer and musician, born in Netěchovice, Czech Republic (d. 1893)
- Nov 26 Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen, composer
- Dec 1 Ernest Reyer, composer
- Dec 10 Theodore Furchtegott Kirchner, Neukirchen, German composer
- Dec 10 Wilhelm Kuhe, composer
- Dec 11 Yury Nikolayevich Golitsin, composer
- Dec 15 Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke, composer
- Dec 23 Alexandru Flechtenmacher, composer