Events

The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl.

• January 1 – First performance of William Boyce's "At length, th’imperious Lord of War".^[1]
• March 24 – Christoph Willibald Gluck leaves Vienna, bound for Bologna where his opera Il trionfo di Clelia is to be premièred.^[1]
• April 26 – Gluck is awarded a pension of 600 florins by Empress Maria Theresa.^[1]
• May 14 – Nuovo Teatro Pubblico in Bologna opens with the première of Gluck's Il trionfo di Clelia; it is the first major opera house to be constructed with public funds and owned by the municipality.
• May 26 – In Paris, François-Joseph Gossec goes to court to retrieve property from the estate of his late patron Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière.
• July 9 – Mozart family grand tour: The family of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sets out on a European tour, ending this year in Paris.^[1]
• James Hook becomes musical director of Marylebone Gardens in London.
• St Cecilia's Hall is opened by Edinburgh Musical Society as the first purpose-built concert hall in Scotland, the second in Britain.

Popular music

• none listed

Opera

• Johann Christian Bach - Orione, ossia Diana vendicata (premiered February 19 in London)
• Pietro Guglielmi – Tito Manlio
• Joseph Haydn – Acide
• Niccolò Jommelli – Didone abbandonata (third version)
• Vincenzo Manfredini – Carlo Magno
• Niccolò Piccinni – Le donne vendicate
• Tommaso Traetta – Ifigenia in Tauride
• Johann Adolph Hasse – Siroe, re di Persia

Classical music

• Carl Friedrich Abel – 6 Flute Concertos, WK 46–51
• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger – Applausus musicus (cantata)^[1]
• Johann Christian Bach – 6 Keyboard Concertos, Op. 1
• François Joseph Gossec – 6 Symphonies, Op. 6
• Joseph Haydn – Symphonies Nos. 12 and 13
• Michael Haydn – Symphony in G major "Divertimento"; Symphony in B-flat major, Perger 51 "La Confidenza"
• Johann Joachim Quantz – Horn Concerto in E-flat major, QV 5:Anh.14
• Giuseppe Tartini – 6 Violin Sonatas, Op. 9
• Georg Philipp Telemann – Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille (cantata)^[1]

Methods and theory writings

• Johann Franz Peter Deysinger – Gründlicher Unterricht die Orgel und das Clavier wohl schlagen zu lernen
• Ignaz Franz Xaver Kürzinger – Getreuer Unterricht zum Singen mit Manieren, und die Violin zu spielen
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Anleitung zur Musik überhaupt, und zur Singkunst besonders
• Cristiano Miller – Porta Armonica

Births

• February 20 – Adalbert Gyrowetz, composer (died 1850)
• March 18 – Marie Christine Björn, ballerina
• March 21 – Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, librettist and novelist (died 1825)
• April 2 – Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari, Italian composer (died 1842)
• April 7 – Domenico Dragonetti, double bass virtuoso and composer (died 1846)
• May 15 – Franz Danzi, composer (died 1826)
• June 14 – Johann Simon Mayr, composer (died 1845)
• by June 15 – Franz Danzi, German composer (died 1826)
• June 22 – Étienne Méhul, composer (died 1817)
• December 12 – Margareta Alströmer, singer and artist (died 1816)
• Date unknown – Johann Andreas Amon, composer and musician (died 1825)

Deaths

• January 11 – Giovanni Benedetto Platti, Italian composer (born 1697)
• February 7 – Christoph Schaffrath, composer (born 1709)
• February 12 (buried) – Gottfried Heinrich Bach, keyboardist son of Johann Sebastian Bach (born 1724)
• February 17 – Christoph Schaffrath, German composer (born 1709)
• May 30 – Gustaviana Schröder, Swedish singer (born 1701)
• June 1 – Johann Caspar Vogler, composer
• July 16 – Jacques Hotteterre, French composer (born 1673)
• July 17 – Wenzel Raimund Pirck, composer
• July 22 – John Dalton, librettist and poet (born 1709)
• August 14 – Giovanni Battista Somis, composer
• September 26 – John Byrom, librettist and poet (born 1692)
• December 2 – Carl August Thielo, composer
• unknown date – Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, composer (born 1708)
• probable – Nicola Logroscino, composer (born 1698)

Notes