1703 in music

The year 1703 in music involved some significant events.

Events

 * January – Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar, his first such professional appointment, although probably including menial duties.
 * by July – George Frideric Handel takes a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt.
 * 14 August – J. S. Bach accepts the post of organist at the New Church, Arnstadt.
 * September – Antonio Vivaldi, newly ordained as a priest, is appointed maestro di violino (master of violin) at the Ospedale della Pietà orphanage in Venice, for which he begins teaching and composing.
 * ca. December – Alessandro Scarlatti becomes maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
 * Nicolas Bernier publishes his first cantatas, the earliest in the French language.

Classical music

 * Henricus Albicastro – 6 Violin Sonatas, Op.5
 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Concerto and Fugue in C minor, BWV 909
 * Denket doch, ihr Menschenkinder, BWV 1122
 * Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst, BWV 1123
 * Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 1124
 * O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 1125
 * Giovanni Bononcini – Proteo sul Reno
 * Sébastien de Brossard
 * Abraham ou le sacrifice d'Isaac
 * Judith ou la mort d'Holopherne
 * Antonio Caldara – La castità al cimento
 * André Campra – Motets, Livre 3
 * Gaspard Corrette – Messe du 8e Ton pour l’Orgue
 * François Couperin – Quatre versets d'un motet (sacred music)
 * George Frideric Handel – Keyboard Sonata in C major, HWV 577
 * Christian Liebe – Machet die Tore weit
 * Louis Marchand – Pièces de clavecin, Livre 2
 * James Paisible - Six sonatas of two parts for two flutes, Op. 1
 * Andrew Parcham – Recorder Sonata in G major
 * Alessandro Scarlatti – S. Casimiro, re di Polonia
 * Andreas Heinrich Schultze – 6 Recorder Sonatas

Opera

 * Antonio Caldara
 * Farnace
 * Gli equivoci del sembiante
 * Francesco Gasparini – Amor della patria
 * Antonio Quintavalle – Il trionfo d'amore
 * Domenico Scarlatti – Il Giustino

Musical theater

 * William Corbett – As You Find It

Births

 * 20 January – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, composer and violinist (died 1741)
 * 29 January – Carlmann Kolb, priest, organist and composer (died 1765)
 * date unknown
 * Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (died 1777)
 * John Frederick Lampe, musician (died 1751)
 * John Travers, organist and composer (died 1758)
 * Johann Gottlieb Graun, German Baroque/Classical era composer and violinist (died 1771)

Deaths

 * March 31 – Johann Christoph Bach, organist and composer (born 1642)
 * September 14 – Gilles Jullien, composer and organist (born 1639)
 * October 3 – Alessandro Melani, composer (b. 1639
 * November 30 – Nicolas de Grigny, organist and composer (born 1672)
 * probable – Jacek Różycki, composer (born c.1635)