Events

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resigns his position in the Salzburg court.
• Samuel Arnold becomes musical director of the Haymarket Theatre in London.
• Über die Theorie der Musik by Johann Nikolaus Forkel is published in Göttingen.
• Thomas Arne and his wife are reconciled after a separation of over twenty years.

Opera

• Agostino Accorimboni – Nitteti
• Luigi de Baillou – Il casino di campagna
• Domenico Cimarosa
  • L'Armida immaginaria
  • Il fanatico per gli antichi romani
  • I tre amanti
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Armide
• Joseph Haydn – Il mondo della luna
• Elizabeth Ryves – The Prude

Classical music

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – 4 Keyboard Trios, Wq.91
• Johann Christian Bach – 6 Keyboard Concertos, Op. 13
• Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach – Flute Sonata No.1 in D major
• Charles Burney – 4 Sonatas for Keyboard 4-Hands
• Giuseppe Maria Cambini – 6 Flute Quintets, Op. 8
• Michael Haydn – Missa S Hieronymi
• Gottfried August Homilius – Christmas Oratorio
• John Keeble – Diapason Movement in F major
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 9 ("Jeunehomme")
• Josef Mysliveček – Isacco figura del redentore (oratorio)
• Antonio Salieri – La Passione di Gesu Christo
• Joseph Bologne Saint-Georges – 2 Symphonies concertantes, Op. 9
• Carl Stamitz
  • 6 Symphonies, Op. 13
  • Clarinet Concerto No.2 in B-flat major
• Johann Baptist Wanhal – Violin Concerto in B-flat major

Popular Music

• " A-Hunting We Will Go" w.m. Thomas Arne (written for insertion into a London production of The Beggar's Opera and first sung by the contralto Mrs. Farrell playing Captain Macheath (sic.))

Methods and theory writings

• Johann Nikolaus Forkel – Über die Theorie der Musik
• Johann Caspar Heck – The Art of Playing Thorough Bass
• Valentin Roeser – Gamme et 12 Duo pour la Flûte Traversière

Births

• January 1 – Micah Hawkins, composer
• January 3 – Louis Poinsot, instrument maker
• January 8 – Filippo Traetta, musicologist
• January 12 – Stepan Davydov, Russian composer (died 1825)
• April 18 – Ignac Ruzitska, composer
• May 4 – Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens, composer
• May 8 – Mateli Magdalena Kuivalatar, Finnish-Carelian Folksinger
• May 12 – Giovanni Morandi, Italian composer (died 1856)
• May 28 – Joseph-Henri-Ignace Mees, composer
• June 2 – Christian Traugott Tag, composer
• September 30 – Ramon Felix Cuellar y Altarriba, composer
• October 3 – Hedda Hjortsberg, ballerina
• October 6 – William Russell, organist and composer
• November 5 – Filippo Taglioni, dancer and choreographer
• December 16 – János Fusz, composer

Deaths

• January 1 – Emanuele Barbella, composer
• January 22 – Simon Leduc, composer violinist (born 1742)
• March 1 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil
• July 27 – William Hayes, composer (b. 1708)
• August 17 – Giuseppe Scarlatti, composer
• August 23 – Giuseppe Sellitti, composer
• September 1 – Johann Ernst Bach, composer
• November – Marco Coltellini, opera librettist (b. 1724)
• November 30 – Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (b. 1703)
• December 21 – Anton Cajetan Adlgasser, organist (b. 1729)