The year 1685 in music involved some significant events.

• The father of Georg Philipp Telemann dies, leaving his widow to bring up the children.
• Antonio Stradivari makes the ex Arma Senkrah violin.
• John Blow is recorded among the private musicians of King James II of England.
• The 17-year-old François Couperin becomes organist at St Gervais in Paris.
• Giovanni Legrenzi becomes maestro di cappella at St Mark's Cathedral, Venice.

• Giovanni Bononcini – 12 Sinfonie, Op. 3
• Cristofaro Caresana – Dixit Dominus
• Arcangelo Corelli – Op. 2, 12 trio sonatas
• Le Sieur de Machy – Pieces de Violle
• Nicolas Gigault – Livre de musique pour l'orgue
• Nicolas Lebègue – Livre d'orgue No.3
• Jean-Baptiste Lully
  • Idylle sur la Paix, LWV 68
  • Ballet du temple de la paix, LWV 69
• Johann Christoph Pezel – Fünfstimmige blasende Music
• Henry Purcell – My heart is inditing (anthem), first performed at the coronation of King James II ^[1]
• Alessandro Scarlatti – Il martirio di S. Teodosia

• John Blow – Venus and Adonis
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier
  • La Couronne de fleurs
  • Les arts florissants
• Giuseppe Fabrini – La Genefieva
• Jean-Baptiste Lully – Roland

• March 5 (N.S.) – George Frideric Handel, composer (died 1759)
• March 31 (NS) – Johann Sebastian Bach, composer (died 1750)
• June 23 (NS?) – Antonio Maria Bernacchi, castrato singer (died 1756)
• June 30 – John Gay, poet, author of The Beggar's Opera (died 1732)
• September 20 – Giuseppe Matteo Alberti, composer and violinist (died 1751)
• October 26 – Domenico Scarlatti, composer (died 1757)
• December 12 – Lodovico Giustini, early composer for piano (died 1743)

• March 31 – Juan Hidalgo de Polanco, harpist and composer (born 1614)
• July 4 or (5) – George Jeffreys, composer (born c.1610)
• September 22 – Ignazio Albertini, Italian musician and composer (born 1644)
• date unknown
  • Jean-Baptiste Boësset, French composer (born 1614)
  • Yatsuhashi Kengyo, Japanese musician and composer (born 1614)