This is a list of notable events in music that took place in 1553.

• none listed

• Francesco Bendusi – Opera nova di balli for four (Venice: Antonio Gardano), a collection of dance music
• Baldassare Donato – First book of madrigals for five and six voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
• Jhan Gero – 40 Madrigals for three voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
• Jacquet of Mantua – Motets for five voices (Venice: Antonio Gardano)
• Vicente Lusitano – Introduttione facilissima, et novissima, di canto fermo, figurato, contraponto semplice, et in concerto, con regole generali per far fughe differenti sopra il canto fermo, a 2, 3, et 4 voci, et compositioni, proportioni, generi. s. diatonico, cromatico, enarmonico (Rome)
• Guillaume de Morlaye
  • first collection for lute
  • Second book of guitar tablature (Paris: Michel Fezendat)
• Diego Ortiz
  • Trattado de glossas sobre clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones nuevamente puestos en luz, 10 December, Rome (Spanish edition)
  • Glose sopra le cadenze et altre sorte de punti in la musica del violone, 10 December, Rome (Italian edition of Trattado de glossas)

• October 18? – Luca Marenzio (c.1553), Italian composer (d. 1599)
• date unknown – Johannes Eccard, German composer and kapellmeister (d. 1611)
• probable – Leonhard Lechner, German composer (d. 1606)

• February 4 – Caspar Othmayr, German Protestant pastor, theologian and composer (b. 1515)
• October 7 – Cristóbal de Morales, Spanish composer (b. 1500)
• date unknown
  • Mateo Flecha, Catalan composer (b. 1481)
  • Mattio Rampollini, Italian composer (b. 1497)