1681 in music

The year 1681 in music involved some significant events.

Events

 * Arcangelo Corelli is employed by the electoral prince of Bavaria.
 * Giovanni Legrenzi becomes assistant maestro di cappella at St Mark's, Venice.
 * Jean-Baptiste Lully is appointed court secretary to King Louis XIV of France.
 * Antonio Stradivari makes the Fleming violin.

Classical music

 * Heinrich Biber – 8 Violin Sonatas, C 138-145
 * Dietrich Buxtehude
 * Afferte Domino gloriam honorem, BuxWV 2
 * Gen Himmel zu dem Vater mein, BuxWV 32
 * Kommst du Licht der Heiden, BuxWV 66
 * Sicut Mose, BuxWV 97
 * Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden, BuxWV 46
 * Giovanni Paolo Colonna
 * Motetti sacri, Op. 2
 * Motetti, Op.3
 * Arcangelo Corelli – Op. 1, 12 trio sonatas
 * Henry Dumont
 * Motets à II, III et IV parties pour voix et instruments avec la basse continue
 * Benedicite Deum cæli
 * Jubilate Deo
 * Johann Melchoir Gletle – Ave Maria (I and II)
 * Carlo Piazzi – Balletti, Op.2
 * Henry Purcell – Suite for Strings, Z.770
 * Alessandro Stradella – Il Barcheggio

Opera

 * Domenico Freschi – Pompeo Magno in Cilicia
 * Jean-Baptiste Lully – Le Triomphe de l’Amour (ballet)
 * Agostino Steffani – Marco Aurelio
 * Marc Antonio Ziani – La Flora (composition begun by Antonio Sartorio, who died during composition)

Publications

 * Johann Wolfgang Franck – Geistliche Lieder (Compositions by Franck, Georg Böhm, and Peter Laurentius Wockenfuss)
 * Andreas Werckmeister – Orgel-Probe (the first appearance of the tuning system known as the Werckmeister temperament)

Births

 * January 20 – Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, composer (died 1732)
 * March 14 – Georg Philipp Telemann, composer (died 1767)
 * April 11 – Anne Danican Philidor, composer and concert organizer (died 1728)
 * September 4 – Carl Heinrich Biber, composer (died 1749)
 * September 28 – Johann Mattheson, composer (died 1764)
 * December 14 – Giuseppe Valentini, violinist and composer (died 1753)
 * date unknown – Giovanni Battista Reali, composer (died 1751)

Deaths

 * May 25 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, librettist (born 1600)
 * June 27 – Ernst Christoph Homburg, librettist (born 1607)
 * July 8 – Georg Neumark, hymnist (born 1621)
 * October 22 – Benedetto Ferrari, composer (born c. 1603)
 * date unknown – Francesco Corbetta, guitarist and composer (born c.1615)
 * date unknown – Benedetto Ferrari, opera composer (born c.1603)