Events

• February 3 – Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole in Metz, Lorraine, is opened.
• June 13 – Composer Maria Teresa Agnesi marries Pier Antonio Pinottini.
• September 25 – Antonio Soler becomes organist at El Escorial.^[1]
• November 3 – George Frideric Handel is operated on for an eye condition, at Guy's Hospital in London.^[1]
• Christoph Willibald Gluck becomes Konzertmeister at Vienna.
• Artist Thomas Gainsborough joins the Ipswich Musical Society; he later paints the portrait of English composer Joseph Gibbs
• Nicola Porpora leaves Dresden for Vienna.
• Johann Wilhelm Hertel replaces his father, Johann Christian Hertel, as Kapellmeister at the court of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
• Anton Cajetan Adlgasser marries Maria Josepha, daughter of Johann Ernst Eberlin.
• Ferdinando Bertoni becomes first organist at St Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Classical music

• George Frideric Handel – Jephtha
• Johann Adolph Scheibe – Der Tempel des Ruhmes
• Georg Philipp Telemann
  • Concerto à 4, TWV 43:D4
  • Sonata à 4, TWV 43:F1

Opera

• Jean-Baptiste Cardonne – Amaryllis
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – La clemenza di Tito, Wq.16
• Carl Heinrich Graun
  • L'Orfeo, GraunWV B:I:25
  • Il giudizio di Paride, GraunWV B:I:26
• Niccolò Jommelli – I rivali delusi (intermezzo)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Le Devin du Village (part of Rousseau's response in the Querelle des Bouffons)

Publications

• Filippo Palma – Sei arie con istromenti, Op. 4 (London: John Johnson)
• Domenico Scarlatti – 12 Sonatas Modernas para Clavicordio, Libro 1 (London: J. Johnson)
• Georg Philipp Telemann – Second Livre de duo pour deux violons, fluttes ou hautbois (Paris: Mr. Blavet, Mme. Boivin, Mr. Le Clerc, Melle. Castagneri), 6 sonatas without bass, TWV 40:124–129

Methods and theory writings

• Charles Avison – Essay on Musical Expression
• Jean le Rond D'Alembert – Eléments de musique théorique et pratique
• Johann Joachim Quantz – Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen, a treatise on playing the flute
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – Nouvelles réflexions de M. Rameau sur sa Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie
• Joseph Riepel – Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst

Births

• January 24 – Muzio Clementi, composer and pianist (died 1832)
• February 11 – Charles Knyvett, singer and arranger (died 1822)
• February 12 – Josef Reicha, conductor and composer (died 1795)
• March 29 – Edward Jones, composer and harpist (died 1824)
• April 4 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, composer (died 1837)
• April 5 – Sébastien Érard, piano-maker (died 1831)
• May 2 – Ludwig August Lebrun, composer (died 1790)
• May 14 – Juliane Reichardt, pianist, singer and composer (died 1783)
• May 31 – John Marsh, composer (died 1828)
• September 8 – Carl Stenborg, operatic tenor and composer (died 1813)
• September 30 – Justin Heinrich Knecht, organist and composer (died 1817)
• October 22 – Ambrogio Minoja, composer (died 1825)
• November 25 – Johann Friedrich Reichardt, composer and music critic (died 1814)
• November 30 – André da Silva Gomes, Brazilian composer (died 1844)
• December 3 – Georg Friedrich Fuchs, composer, clarinetist and music teacher (died 1821)
• December 4 – Ange-Étienne-Xavier Poisson de La Chabeaussière, librettist and playwright (died 1820)
• date unknown
  • Francesco Bianchi, composer and music collector (died 1810)
  • Leonard McNally, librettist and writer (died 1820)
  • Abraham Wood, military drummer and composer (died 1804)

Deaths

• January 1 – Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sindhi Sufi scholar, mystic, saint, poet, and musician (born 1689)
• March 7 – Pietro Castrucci, violinist and composer (born 1679)
• June 19 – Hieronymus Albrecht Hass, harpsichord and clavichord maker
• July 20 – Johann Christoph Pepusch, composer (born 1667)
• July 24 – Michael Christian Festing, violinist and composer
• date unknown – Anton Wilhelm Solnitz, composer (born c.1708)

References