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Events

  • Johann Friedrich Agricola succeeds Carl Heinrich Graun as director of Frederick the Great's royal opera.
  • Castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti makes his debut at the Perugia carnival, in a female role.
  • Tommaso Traetta becomes court composer at Parma.
  • None listed

Opera

  • Johann Ernst Eberlin – Demofoonte (lost)
  • Baldassare Galuppi – La clemenza di Tito
  • Florian Leopold Gassmann – Gli uccellatori
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck – L'Arbre enchantée; Cythère Assiégée
  • François Danican Philidor – Blaise le savetier
  • Niccolò Piccinni – Ciro riconosciuto
  • Tommaso Traetta – Ippolito ed Aricia
  • Johann Adolph Hasse
  • La clemenza di Tito
  • Achille in Sciro

Classical music

  • Carl Friedrich Abel – 6 Symphonies, Op. 1
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Viola da Gamba Sonata in G minor, H.510
  • Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Pieces for Musical Clock
  • Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Pièces de clavecin
  • William Boyce – "Heart of Oak"
  • François Joseph Gossec – Sei sinfonie a più stromenti, op.4
  • Joseph Haydn
  • Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:G1
  • Symphony no 1 in D Major Hob.I:1
  • Leopold Mozart
  • Der Morgen und der Abend (pieces for keyboard)
  • Nannerl's Music Book
  • Johan Helmich Roman – Concerto Grosso, BeRI 45
  • Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Messias, TWV 6:4

Methods and music theory

  • Pietro Gianotti – Le guide du compositeur
  • Cornforth Gilson – Lessons on the Practice of Singing
  • Antoine Mahaut – Nouvelle Méthode pour jouer la Flûte Traversière
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten und neuen Musik
  • Robert Smith – Harmonics, or The Philosophy of Musical Sounds

Births

  • January 19 – Karl Alexander Herklots, librettist and author (died 1830)
  • January 20 – Giuseppe Bertini, composer, choral conductor, music lexicographer, and priest (d. 1852)
  • January 24 – Francesco Saverio Salfi, librettist and writer (died 1832)
  • January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist (died 1796)
  • January 31 – François Devienne, composer (died 1803)
  • February 1 – Karl Friedrich Hensler, librettist and author (died 1825)
  • February 11 – Ernst von Gemmingen, composer and diplomat (died 1813)
  • February 27 – Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab, music editor and composer (died 1813)
  • April 18 – Jacques Widerkehr, Alsatian composer and cellist (died 1823)
  • 15 May – Maria Theresia von Paradis, musician and composer (died 1824)
  • May 22 – Gervais-François Couperin, French composer (died 1826)
  • June 19 – Helen Maria Williams, librettist and writer (died 1827)
  • 19 July – Marianna Auenbrugger, composer (died 1782)
  • July 29 – Antonio Simone Sografi, librettist and playwright (died 1818)
  • November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, librettist and poet (died 1805)
  • November 27 – Franz Krommer, composer (died 1831)
  • December 25 – John Beckwith, composer and musician (died 1809)
  • unknown date
  • Franz Gleissner, German composer (died 1818)
  • William Matthews of Nottingham, composer

Deaths

  • March 19 – Sebastian Bodinus, German composer (born c. 1700)
  • April 14 – George Frideric Handel, composer (born 1685)
  • June 12 – William Collins, librettist and poet (born 1721)
  • June 22 – Louis de Cahusac, librettist (born 1706)
  • July 25 – Johann Christoph Altnickol, organist, singer and composer (born 1719)
  • August 8 – Carl Heinrich Graun, composer (born 1704)
  • August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, librettist and poet (born 1715)
  • September 4 – Girolamo Chiti, composer
  • October 18 – Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, French composer (born c. 1680)
  • date unknown – Gustavus Waltz, singer

References