1737 in music

Events

 * April – George Frideric Handel suffers a probable stroke, resulting in the temporary paralysis of his right arm.
 * November 4 – Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, inaugurated with a performance of Domenico Sarro's Achille in Sciro.
 * William Boyce conducts the Three Choirs Festival

Classical music

 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
 * Harpsichord Concerto in G major, H. 405
 * Flute Sonata in E minor, H. 551
 * Johann Sebastian Bach – Mass in G major, BWV 236
 * Christoph Graupner – Concerto for Chalumeau, Bassoon and Cello in C major, GWV 306
 * George Frideric Handel – Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, HWV 264
 * Leonardo Leo
 * Cello Concerto in D major, L. 10
 * Cello Concerto in A major, L. 20
 * Cello Concerto in F minor, L. 40
 * Nicola Porpora – Il Gedeone (sacred oratorio)
 * Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel – Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, H. 342
 * Jan Dismas Zelenka
 * Requiem, ZWV 45 (attribution is contested)
 * 6 Ave Regina Coelorum, ZWV 128
 * Il diamante, ZWV 177

Opera

 * Domenico Alberti – Endimione
 * Giovanni Bononcini – Zenobia
 * Riccardo Broschi – Merope
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Arminio (first performed, composed in 1736))
 * Giustino, HWV 37 (first performed, composed in 1736)
 * Berenice, HWV 38 (completed, first performed)
 * Faramondo, HWV 39 (composed, first performed 1738)
 * Johann Adolph Hasse – Asteria
 * John Frederick Lampe and Henry Carey – The Dragon of Wantley
 * Leonardo Leo
 * L'Olimpiade
 * Siface
 * Jean-Philippe Rameau – Castor et Pollux
 * Nicola Antonio Porpora – Lucio Papirio
 * Domenico Sarro – Achille in Sciro
 * Antonio Vivaldi
 * Catone In Utica
 * Oracolo in Messenia, RV 726

Publications

 * Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – 9 Sonatas and Chaconne, Op. 66
 * Nicolas Chédeville – Il Pastor Fido Sonatas (originally attributed to Vivaldi as his Op. 13)
 * Michel Corrette – Premier Livre d’Orgue, Op. 16
 * Charles Dollé – Pièces de viole, Op. 2
 * Giovanni Battista Ferrandini – 6 Sonatas, Op. 2
 * Charles-Joseph van Helmont – Pièces de Clavecin, Op. 1
 * Jean-Marie Leclair
 * 6 Violin Concertos, Op. 7
 * Deuxième recréation de musique d’une execution facile, Op. 8 (Paris)
 * Pietro Locatelli – 12 Sonate da camera, Op. 6
 * Il Maestro di Musica – Pasticcio with music by Pietro Auletta, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Parisotti
 * Ohrenvergnügendes und gemütergötzendes Tafelkonfekt, Augsburg. (includes works by Valentin Rathgeber)

Methods and theory writings

 * Carl Johann Friedrich Haltmeier – Anleitung zum Transponieren
 * Jacques Hotteterre – Méthode pour la musette, Op. 10
 * David Kellner – Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß
 * John Frederick Lampe – A Plain and Compendious Method of Teaching Thorough Bass
 * Johann Mattheson – Kern Melodischer Wissenschafft
 * Jean-Phillipe Rameau – Génération harmonique, ou Traité de musique théorique et pratique
 * Johann Adolph Scheibe – Der critische Musicus

Births

 * January 3 – Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg, poet and librettist (died 1823)
 * January 19 – Giuseppe Millico, castrato singer, composer and music teacher (died 1802)
 * March 9 – Josef Mysliveček, composer (died 1781)
 * April 10 – François Giroust (died 1799)
 * September 14 – Michael Haydn, composer (died 1806)
 * September 21 – Francis Hopkinson (died 1791)
 * November 25 – Christian Friedrich Penzel (died 1801)
 * date unknown
 * William Paxton, cellist and composer (died 1781)
 * Frederick Charles Reinhold, operatic bass (died 1815)
 * Marguerite Morel, Ballerina, actress and singer.

Deaths

 * February 12 – Benjamin Schmolck, Lutheran hymn-writer (born 1672)
 * September 22
 * Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, composer (born 1667)
 * Francesco Mancini, composer and music teacher (born 1672)
 * December 18 – Antonio Stradivari, violin-maker (born 1644)