1572 in music

	… 1562; 1563; 1564; 1565; 1566; 1567; 1568; ; 1569; 1570; 1571; 1572; 1573; 1574; 1575; ; 1576; 1577; 1578; 1579; 1580; 1581; 1582 …;
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Events

20 February – John of Austria, through the agency of Girolamo Dalla Casa in Venice, purchases a large number of wind instruments and printed editions of music for his court, paying the considerable sum of 154 scudi, 3 lire, and 20 soldi in gold.^[1]
William Byrd becomes a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.

Lodovico Agostini
- Enigmi musicali... il primo libro a sei... (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
- Second book of madrigals for four voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
- First book of canons and echo for six voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano and sons)
Ippolito Baccusi
- Second book of madrigals for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
- Second book of madrigals for six voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
Joachim a Burck
- First book of sacrae odae for four voices (Erfurt: Georg Baumann), settings of hymns by Ludwig Helmbold
- A Birthday song for the firstborn son of William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel for five voices (Mühlhausen: Georg Hantzsch)
Girolamo Conversi – First book of canzoni alla Napolitana for five voices (Venice: Girolamo Scotto)
Jacobus de Kerle
- Liber modulorum for four, five, and six voices (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard)
- Liber modulorum sacrorum for five and six voices (Munich: Adam Berg)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Motettorum Liber Secundus (Second Book of Motets) for five, six, and eight voices
Johann Rasch published in Munich:
- Cantiunculae Paschales (Little Easter Songs)
- Cantiones Ecclesiast. de Nativ. Christi, 4 voc.
- In Monte Olivarum
- Salve Regina, 6 voc.
Giulio Zacchini – Motetta a 4 vocum

February 14 – Hans Christoph Haiden, German composer, organist and poet
March 16 (baptized) – Daniel Bacheler, English lutenist and composer
May 25 – Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), German music patron and composer (died 1632)
September 15 (baptized) – Erasmus Widmann, German composer, teacher, instrumentalist, organist, and poet
October 19 (baptized) – Paolo Fonghetto, Italian composer
December 27 – Johannes Vodnianus Campanus, Czech composer, pedagogue and humanist (died 1622)
date unknown
- Martin Peerson (born ca. 1571 – ca. 1573; died 1650 or 1651), English composer, organist and virginalist
- Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (died 1656)
- Alessandro Ghivizzani, Italian composer

January – Robert Parsons, composer (born c.1535)
February 23 – Pierre Certon, French composer (born c1510)
August 28? – Claude Goudimel, French composer, murdered in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. (born c1514)
date unknown
- Melchior Kreisstein, German music printer
- Francesco Londariti (Frankiskos Leontaritis), Cretan composer, active in Venice and Munich
- Christopher Tye, English composer (between August 27, 1571 and March 15, 1573)

^ Michael J. Levin and Steven Zohn, "Don Juan de Austria and the Venetian Music Trade". Early Music 33, no. 3 (August 2005): 439–46. Citation on 439–40, 442–44.