1678 in music

The year 1678 in music involved some significant events.

Events

 * January 2 – Public opera in Hamburg begins when the Oper am Gänsemarkt is inaugurated with a performance of Johann Theile's biblical Singspiel Adam und Eva.
 * May 4 – André Campra begins ecclesiastical studies at the age of 17.
 * June 19 – Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers is appointed to join Nicolas Lebègue, Jacques Thomelin and Jean Buterne as an organists of the Chapelle Royale at the French court.
 * John Blow becomes a doctor of music.
 * Seventeen-year-old Giacomo Antonio Perti composes his first opera.
 * The Teatro Grimani is constructed, the grandest opera house in Venice.

Classical music

 * Albertus Bryne – 5 dance movements
 * Henry Purcell – 3 Parts upon a Ground, Z.731
 * Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani – Capricci armonici da chiesa e da camera, Op.4
 * Bernardo Pasquini – Sant'Agnese
 * Giovanni Paolo Colonna – Il transito di S. Giuseppe

Opera

 * Jean-Baptiste Lully
 * Psyche
 * Bellérophon, LWV 57
 * Johann Theile – Der erschaffene, gefallene und aufgerichtete Mensch.
 * Carlo Pallavicino – Il Vespasiano
 * Giovanni Maria Bononcini – Astianatte
 * La Despina, Agnelli, Milano 1678, performed in Milan.

Births

 * March 4 – Antonio Vivaldi, composer (died 1741)
 * July 6 – Nicola Francesco Haym, opera librettist and composer (died 1727)
 * December 30 – William Croft, organist and composer (died 1727)
 * probable – Manuel de Zumaya, composer (died 1755)

Deaths

 * March – Jacques Hardel, harpsichordist and composer
 * August 5 – Juan García de Zéspedes, composer (born 1619)
 * September 28 – Maurizio Cazzati, Italian composer (born 1616)
 * November 18 – Giovanni Maria Bononcini, violinist and composer
 * date unknown
 * Leonora Duarte, composer
 * John Jenkins, composer (born 1592)
 * probable – Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Benedictine nun and composer (born 1602)