- 1576 Baliny Valentin Bakfark, composer, dies
- 1600 Johann Baptista Serranus, composer, dies at 60
- 1728 Marin Marais, French composer, dies at 72
- 1798 Felice Alessandri, composer, dies at 50
- 1848 Timothy Olmstead, early American composer, dies at 88
- 1853 Giovanni Battista Polledro, composer, dies at 72
- 1907 Joseph Joachim, German violinist/composer, dies at 76
- 1914 Anatol K Liadov, Russian composer (Baba yaga), dies at 59 [NS=Aug 28]
- 1918 Heinrich Köselitz [Peter Gast], German composer, dies at 64
- 1935 Gerard Brucken Fock, Dutch composer and painter, dies at 75
- 1936 Stanislaw Niewiadomski, composer, dies at 76
- 1936 Henry Lytton, British actor and opera singer (The Mikado), dies at 71
- 1951 Artur Schnabel, Austrian pianist (Reflections on Music), dies at 69
- 1958 William L C "Big Bill" Broonzy, US blues singer/guitarist, dies at 65
- 1959 Blind Willie McTell, American ragtime singer and guitarist (b. 1901)
- 1963 John Powell, American composer, dies at 80
- 1966 Jan Kiepura, Polish vocalist and actor (Her Wonderful Lie, Give Us this Night), dies of heart attack at 64
- 1968 Edward Kilenyi, Sr. [Ede Kilényi], composer and teacher (Clipped Wings, Outside the Law), dies at 84
- 1970 Karl August Andersen, composer, dies at 66
- 1972 Alf Thorbald Hurum, composer, dies at 89
- 1978 Harrison Kerr, American composer, dies at 80
- 1985 Richard Yardumian, American composer (Creator Spirit), dies at 68
- 1990 Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
- 1992 Jackie Edwards, Jamaican songwriter (Keep On Running), dies at 53 or 54
- 1995 Erbie Bowser, American blues and jazz pianist, dies at 77
- 2003 Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
- 2004 Semiha Berksoy, first Turkish opera singer (b. 1910)
- 2007 Richard Bradshaw, British opera conductor, (b. 1944)
- 2008 Jerry Wexler, American music producer who coined the term "rhythm and blues" (Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan), dies from congestive heart failure at 91
- 2012 Bob Birch, American musician (Elton John), commits suicide at 56
- 2014 Licia Albanese, Italian-born American operatic soprano, dies at 105
- 2015 Gordon "Jazz" Summers, British music manager (Wham, Snow Patrol), dies at 71