1718 in music

The year 1718 in music involved some significant events.

Events

 * Antonio Vivaldi tours Italy.
 * Handel succeeds Johann Christoph Pepusch as Kapellmeister to the Duke of Chandos.
 * Johann Joachim Quantz settles in Dresden.
 * 14-year-old Carlos Seixas succeeds his father as organist at Coimbra Cathedral.

Classical music

 * Attilio Ariosti – Recueil de pièces
 * William Babell – The Harpsichord Master Improved
 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen, BWV Anh.5
 * Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn, BWV Anh.77
 * Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück, BWV 66a
 * Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a
 * Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, BWV 202
 * Amore traditore, BWV 203
 * Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, BWV 738
 * Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042
 * Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
 * Sinfonia in F major, BWV 1046a
 * Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047 (likely composed)
 * Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
 * Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066
 * Antonio Caldara – Il martirio di San Terenziano
 * Pietro Castrucci – 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 1
 * Francesco Bartolomeo Conti – Amore in Tessaglia
 * Jean-François Dandrieu – Les caractères de la guerre
 * Johann Ernst Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar – 6 Violin Concertos, Op. 1
 * Christoph Graupner – 8 Partitas
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Esther (oratorio) HWV 50a
 * Dolc' è pur d'amor l'affanno, HWV 109b
 * L'aure grate, il fresco rio, HWV 121a
 * As Pants the Hart, HWV 251b
 * Francesco Manfredini – 12 Concertos, Op. 3 (inc. No. 12 in C major "Christmas Pastorale")
 * Pierre Danican Philidor
 * 4 Suites, Op. 2
 * 3 Suites, Op. 3
 * Georg Philipp Telemann
 * 6 Suonatine per violino e cembalo (TWV 41)
 * 6 Trio Sonatas (TWV 42)
 * Concerto for 2 Recorders, TWV 52:a2
 * Antonio Vivaldi – Qual in pioggia dorata, RV 686
 * Giovanni Zamboni – Sonate d'intavolatura di leuto, Op. 1
 * Jan Dismas Zelenka
 * Capriccio in G major, ZWV 183
 * Capriccio in F major, ZWV 184
 * Collectaneorum Musicorum, Book II (compilation of Poglietti and Frescobaldi scores compiled during Zelenka's time in Vienna)

Opera

 * Toussaint Bertin de la Doué – Le Jugement de Paris
 * Antonio Maria Bononcini – Griselda
 * Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello – Tisbe, Premiered Jan. 26 in Stuttgart
 * Antonio Caldara – Ifigenia in Aulide
 * George Frideric Handel – Acis and Galatea HWV 49
 * Nicola Porpora – Berenice regina d'Egitto
 * Domenico Natale Sarro – Arsace
 * Alessandro Scarlatti
 * Cambise, R.356.64
 * Il trionfo dell'onore
 * Telemaco
 * Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel – Diomedes (inc. aria "Bist du bei mir", later arranged by J.S. Bach as BWV 508)
 * Antonio Vivaldi
 * Armida al campo d'Egitto, RV 699
 * Scanderbeg, RV 732
 * Tito Manlio, RV 738

Theoretical Writings

 * Jean-François Dandrieu – Principes de l'Acompagnement du Clavecin

Births

 * January 18 – Christoph Ludwig Fehre, organist and composer (died 1772)
 * April 14 – Emanuele Barbella, Italian composer and violinist (died 1777)
 * August 9 – Placidus von Camerloher, German composer (died 1782)
 * September 25 – Nicola Conforto, composer (died 1793)
 * November 8 – Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur, composer (died 1809)
 * November 21 – Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, music critic and composer (died 1795)
 * date unknown
 * Wenzel Raimund Birck, composer (died 1763)
 * Mademoiselle Duval (nom de plume) (died c.1775)
 * Richard Mudge, composer (died 1763)
 * Giuseppe Scarlatti (or 1723), composer (died 1777)
 * December 3 – Richard Duke, violin maker (died 1783)

Deaths

 * February 27 – Václav Karel Holan Rovenský, composer (born 1644)
 * March – Richard Brind, organist and composer
 * March 13 – Friedrich Nicolaus Brauns, composer (born 1637)
 * April 1 – Johann Burchard Freystein, hymn writer (born 1671)
 * November 26 – Bernardo Sabadini, opera composer