1728 in music

The year 1728 in music involved some significant events.

Events

 * 26 March – Johann Sebastian Bach revives his St John Passion (BWV 245, BC D 2c) with some textual and instrumentational changes.
 * Giuseppe Tartini opens a school for violinists in Padua.
 * Johann Georg Pisendel begins studying composition under Johann David Heinichen.
 * Domenico Scarlatti returns to Rome, where he meets his first wife.
 * Johann Joachim Quantz visits Berlin and performs in the presence of the Crown Prince of Prussia, who insists on taking lessons from him.
 * Deafness forces Johann Mattheson to retire from his post as musical director of Hamburg Cathedral.
 * In music theory, the circle of fifths is described by Johann David Heinichen, in his 1728 treatise Der Generalbass in der Composition; the first such description in Western European literature

Classical music

 * Johann Sebastian Bach – Partita in D major, BWV 828
 * Jean Francois Dandrieu – Pieces de Clavecin, Book 2
 * Giovanni Antonio Guido – Scherzi armonici sopra le quattro staggioni dell'anno, Op. 3
 * Jean-Marie Leclair – 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 2
 * Vincent Lübeck – Clavier Übung for harpsichord
 * Michel Pignolet de Montéclair – Morte di Lucretia
 * Jean-Philippe Rameau – Cantates Françaises
 * Thomas Roseingrave – Voluntarys and Fugues
 * Giuseppe Tartini – 6 Violin Concertos, Op. 1
 * Georg Philipp Telemann
 * Der getreue Music-Meister (editor, continues through 1729) Hamburg: [Telemann].
 * Das Frauenzimmer verstimmt sich immer, song for voice and basso continuo, TWV 25:37, lection 5
 * Ich kann lachen, weinen, scherzen (cantata, words by M. von Ziegler), for soprano and basso continuo, TWV 20:15, lections 19–20.
 * Intrada, nebst burlesquer Suite (nicknamed "Gulliver Suite") for two violins unaccompanied, TWV 40:108
 * Säume nicht geliebte Schöne, song for voice and basso continuo), TWV 25:38, lection 21

Opera

 * Bartolomeo Cordans – Ormisda
 * Geminiano Giacomelli – Gianguir
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Siroe, re di Persia, HWV 24
 * Tolomeo, re di Egitto
 * Leonardo Leo
 * Catone in Utica
 * La pastorella commattuta, librettist Tommaso Mariani
 * Johann Christoph Pepusch – The Beggar's Opera
 * Leonardo Vinci
 * Catone in Utica
 * Didone Abandonnata
 * Medo

Musical theater

 * The Beggar's Opera opened at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 29 and ran for 62 performances

Births

 * January 16 – Niccolò Piccinni, composer of over 100 operas (died 1800)
 * January 17 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, keyboard virtuoso and composer (died 1788)
 * September 21 – Louis Emmanuel Eadin, composer
 * December 9 – Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, composer (died 1804)
 * December 21 – Hermann Raupach, composer (died 1778)
 * December 25 – Johann Adam Hiller, composer (died 1804)

Deaths

 * February 12 – Agostino Steffani, composer and diplomat (born 1653)
 * August 15 – Marin Marais, composer and bass-viol player (born 1656)
 * October 8 – Anne Danican Philidor, composer and founder of the Concert Spirituel (born 1681)
 * November 19 – Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, employer of Johann Sebastian Bach (born 1694) (smallpox)
 * probable – Gaetano Greco, composer (born c. 1657)