Events

• April 30 – Possible premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's last St Mark Passion pastiche (BC D 5) at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. In addition to two movements by Bach, he incorporates seven arias from George Frideric Handel's Brockes Passion HWV 48 into the work.^{[ dubious – discuss]}
• October 4 – Schlosstheater Schönbrunn opens.
• Johann Sebastian Bach is presented to King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam; the king plays a theme for Bach and challenges the musician to improvise a six-part fugue based on it.
• Luigi Boccherini goes to Rome to study the cello.

Classical music

• Maria Teresa Agnesi – Il restauro d'Arcadia (cantata)
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Trio Sonata in F major, H.576
• Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, BWV 769
  • Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079 (the Musical Offering)
• William Boyce – 12 Trio Sonatas
• Antoine Forqueray – Pièces de viole mises en pièces de clavecin (posthumously published)
• George Frideric Handel – Judas Maccabeus (oratorio)
• Jean-Marie Leclair – 6 Duos for 2 Violins, Op. 12
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – La Dauphine (harpsichord piece).
• Giuseppe Sammartini – 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. 5
• Giuseppe Tartini – L'arte del arco (first set of 17 variations on a theme from Corelli's Op. 5) (attribution to Tartini in question)

Opera

• Nicola Calandra – Lo Barone Landolfo
• Geronimo Cordella – La Faustina
• Johann Adolf Hasse
  • Leucippo
  • La spartana generosa
• Giuseppe de Majo – Arianna e Teseo
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour, RCT 38

Births

• February – Narciso Casanovas, Spanish composer (died 1799)
• March 29 – Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German organist and composer (died 1822)
• March 31 – Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, musician and composer (died 1800)
• June 24 – John O'Keeffe, Irish librettist (died 1833)
• June 26 – Leopold Kozeluch, prolific composer and teacher (died 1818)
• July 23 – Faustino Arévalo, hymnographer (died 1824)
• September 22 – Józef Wybicki, composer and poet (died 1822)
• October 26 – Giovanni Mane Giornovichi, violinist and composer (died 1804)
• November 24 – Felice Alessandri, Italian composer (died 1798)
• date unknown
  • Narciso Casanovas, Spanish monk and composer
  • Michael Ehregott Grose, Danish organist and composer (died 1795)
  • François Tourte, maker of violin bows (died 1835)

Deaths

• January 2 – Jean-Féry Rebel, violinist and composer (born 1666)
• February 2 – Francisco Valls, church composer (born 1665)
• February 26 – Johann Nicolaus Mempel, musician (born 1713)
• May 26 – Robert Valentine – Baroque composer (born 1674)
• June 6 – Jean-Baptiste Barrière, cellist and composer (born 1707)
• June 19 – Alessandro Marcello, composer (born 1669)
• July 9 – Giovanni Bononcini, composer (born 1670)