1738 in music

Events

 * January – Antonio Vivaldi conducts a festival to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Schouwburg theater.
 * 4 May – Foundation of the Imperial Ballet School at Saint Petersburg, with Jean-Baptiste Landé as its principal.
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great (Bach will remain in Frederick's service until 1768).

Classical music

 * Johann Sebastian Bach
 * Kyrie–Gloria masses, BWV 233–236
 * Harpsichord Concerto No.3 in D major, BWV 1054
 * Francesco Durante – Messa piccola di requiem in G
 * George Frideric Handel – La bianca rosa, HWV 160c
 * Leonardo Leo
 * Cello Concerto in A major, L.50
 * Cello Concerto in D minor, L.60
 * Jan Dismas Zelenka – Miserere, ZWV 57

Opera

 * Thomas Arne – Comus
 * Antonio Bioni – Girita
 * François Francoeur and François Rebel – Le Ballet de la paix (Paris, Opéra, 29 May)
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Faramondo
 * Saul (composed, first performed 1739)
 * Serse (London, 15 April)
 * Johann Adolph Hasse – Irene
 * Giovanni Battista Pescetti – La Conquista del Vello D'Oro
 * Nicola Porpora – Carlo il Calvo
 * Giovanni Porta – Ifigenia in Aulide
 * Francesco Maria Veracini – Rosalinda

Publications

 * Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – L'Automne, Op. 5, No. 3 (extract, reprinted from Cantates françoises, Op. 5 [1724])
 * Josse Boutmy – Pièces de clavecin, Livre 1
 * Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello – 12 Concertos, Op. 1
 * Michele Corrette
 * L'école d'Orphée, Op. 18 (Paris)
 * Les délices de la solitude, Op. 20 (Paris)
 * George Frideric Handel – 6 Organ Concertos, Op.4 (London: John Walsh)
 * Alessandro Marcello – La cetra di Eterio Stinfalico, 6 concertos for 2 oboes or flutes, strings, and basso continuo (Augsburg, [approximate year])
 * Domenico Scarlatti
 * Essercizi per Gravicembalo, K.1-30
 * 42 Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, K.1-42 (introduction by Roseingrave)
 * Giuseppe Sammartini – 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. 2
 * Georg Philipp Telemann
 * Fugues légères & petits jeux, TWV 30:21–26
 * 18 Canons Mélodieux, TWV 40:118–123
 * 6 Nouveaux quatuors en six suites: à une flûte traversiere, un violon, une basse de viole, où violoncel, et basse continuë. Paris: L'auteur, Vater, Boivin, et Le Clerc. ("Paris quartets" Nos. 7–12), TWV 43:D3, 43:a2, 43:G4, 43:h2, 43:A3, 43:e4
 * Johann Gottfried Walther – Harmonisches Denck- und Danckmahl
 * 6 Harpsichord Concertos and 4 Organ Fugues (Strasbourg: Jean Daniel Doulsecker) works by various and anonymous composers. Contains Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Fugue in F major F.36.

Methods and theory writings

 * Johann Philipp Eisel – Musicus autodidaktos

Births

 * April 17 – Philip Hayes, composer (died 1797)
 * May – Jonathan Battishill, composer (died 1801)
 * June 3 – Pierre Vachon, composer (died 1803)
 * August 11 (baptized)– Anna Bon, composer (died after 1769)
 * August 14 – Leopold Hofmann, composer (died 1793)
 * October 26 – Louis-Charles-Joseph Rey, composer and cellist, (died 1811)
 * November 15 – William Herschel, astronomer and composer (died 1822)
 * December 14 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, composer (died 1814)
 * date unknown
 * Carlo Besozzi, oboist and composer (died 1791)
 * Thomas Ebdon, organist and composer (died 1811)

Deaths

 * January 6 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer (born 1663)
 * January 17 – Jean-François Dandrieu, harpsichordist, organist and composer (born c. 1682)
 * March 25 – Turlough O'Carolan, harpist and composer (born 1670)
 * July 20 – Tommaso Redi, composer (born c.1675)
 * August 23 – Baron Anders von Düben, director of the Royal Swedish Orchestra (born 1673)
 * August 29 – Georg Reutter, organist and composer (born 1656)
 * September 23 – Carlo Agostino Badia, opera composer (born 1672)
 * December 22 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, composer (born 1681)
 * date unknown – José de Torres, composer (born 1665)