1740 in music

Events

 * Johann Sebastian Bach begins to lose his sight.
 * Carl Heinrich Graun becomes Kapellmeister to Frederick II of Prussia. Johann Joachim Quantz becomes Frederick's flute teacher.
 * Ferdinando Bertoni arrives in Bologna where he becomes a pupil of Giovanni Battista Martini.
 * December 26 – The Teatro Regio (Turin) is inaugurated with a performance of Francesco Feo's opera Arsace.

Classical music

 * Thomas Arne – Alfred (masque), including the song, "Rule Britannia"
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
 * Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in F major, H.408
 * Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.410
 * Flute Sonata in A minor, H.555
 * Christoph Graupner – Violin Sonata in G minor, GWV 711
 * George Frideric Handel – L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55
 * Giuseppe Tartini – Violin Concerto in C major, D.1
 * Georg Philipp Telemann – 6 Overtures for Clavier, TWV 32:5–10 (Published ca. 1742 in Nuremberg, as VI Ouverturen nebst zween Folgesätzen)

Opera

 * Bernardo Aliprandi – Semiramide riconosciuta
 * Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi – La Beatrice
 * Baldassare Galuppi – Gustavo primo re di Svezia
 * Maurice Greene – The Judgement of Hercules
 * George Frideric Handel – Imeneo, HWV 41 (first performed, composed in 1738)
 * Nicola Porpora – Il trionfo di Camilla
 * Luca Antonio Predieri – Zenobia

Publications

 * Thomas Arne – Comus (London: William Smith). First performed 1738.
 * Jean-Baptiste Barrière – 6 Cello Sonatas, Livre 4 (Paris: Composer) (Likely composed 1737–1740)
 * Michel Blavet – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 3
 * Louis de Caix d'Hervelois – Pièces de viole, Livre 4
 * Esprit Philippe Chédeville – 6 Sonatilles galantes, Op. 6
 * Nicolas Chédeville – Les Deffis ou l'étude amusante, Op. 9
 * Antoine Dauvergne
 * 6 Trio Sonatas, Op. 1
 * 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 2
 * Michel Richard Delalande – Noëls en Trio avec un Carillon, S.173.24 (composed 1725, published posthumously)
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Op. 6, 12 Concerti Grossi
 * "A Second Set of Six Concertos" (London: John Walsh) (arranged for organ, No. 3–6 are also in Op. 6)
 * James Oswald – A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes
 * Johan Helmich Roman – Assaggio in G minor, BeRI 314 (Stockholm: Composer) likely composed earlier.
 * Carlo Tessarini – 6 Allettamenti da camera, Op. 3 (there is another Op. 3 by Tessarini, a set of 10 violin concerti)
 * Antonio Vivaldi – 6 Cello Sonatas, Le Clerc Op. 14 (Paris: Le Clerc le Cadet)
 * Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer – Concerti Armonici (composed between 1725–1740, originally published anonymously and attributed to various composers)

Methods and theory writings

 * Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre à jouër la flûtte
 * John Frederick Lampe – The Art of Musick
 * Johann Mattheson – Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte

Births

 * February 3 – Guillaume Lasceux (died 1831)
 * February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, poet and composer (died 1795)
 * February 15 – Ernst Eichner (died 1777)
 * May 9 – Giovanni Paisiello, composer (died 1816)
 * July 26 – Louis-Augustin Richer, classical singer, singing master and composer (died 1819)
 * August 10 – Samuel Arnold (composer), (died 1802)
 * October 7 – Samuel Webbe (died 1816)
 * November 4 – Augustus Montague Toplady, hymn-writer (died 1778)
 * December – Elisabeth Olin, operatic soprano (died 1828)
 * unknown date
 * John Antes, composer (died 1811)
 * Sir Peter Beckford, English peer (died 1811), patron of Muzio Clementi
 * Samuel Webbe, composer (died 1816)
 * probable – Anna Bon, singer and composer

Deaths

 * January 5 – Antonio Lotti, composer (born 1667)
 * January 13 – William Turner, singer and composer (born 1651)
 * January 25 – Geminiano Giacomelli, composer (born 1692)
 * February 9 – Vincent Lübeck, organist and composer (born 1654)
 * February 25 – Dietrich Bernhard Ludewig (born 1707)
 * October 14 – Domenico Alberti, composer (born c.1710)
 * unknown date
 * André Bouys, painter and copyist (born c.1656)
 * Edward Purcell, organist (born 1689)
 * Poul Christian Schindler, composer (born 1648)
 * probable – François Dieupart, French composer (born after 1667)