1741 in music

Events

 * August 22–September 14 – George Frideric Handel composes his oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens, completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on September 6.
 * October 2 – The Bull's Head Musical Society opens a Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, Ireland.
 * November 18 – George Frideric Handel arrives in Dublin to give a series of concerts having tried out the Messiah privately en route in Chester.
 * November 25 – Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin, the first female court musician at the French court, sells her official post to Bernard de Bury.
 * Johann Friedrich Agricola arrives in Berlin to study musical composition under Johann Joachim Quantz.
 * Antonio Vivaldi leaves Venice for Vienna, but dies shortly after his arrival.
 * 19-year-old Jiří Antonín Benda is given the post of second violinist at the Berlin court of King Frederick II of Prussia.
 * William Hogarth produces an engraving entitled The Enraged Musician.

Classical music

 * Girolamo Abos – Magnificat à quarto concertato con strum.
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
 * Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.411
 * Symphony in G major, H.648
 * Johann Sebastian Bach – Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
 * Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 91
 * Michel Corrette – Nouveau Livre de noëls
 * Jean-Baptiste Dupuits – 6 Sonatas for Vielle and Harpsichord, Op. 3
 * Willem de Fesch – 8 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 10
 * Baldassare Galuppi – Confitebor tibi Domine in C major, B.II.2
 * Christoph Graupner
 * Trio Sonata in E major, GWV 208
 * Flute Sonata in G major, GWV 708
 * George Frideric Handel
 * Messiah composed.
 * Quel fior che all'alba ride, HWV 192 (duet)
 * Overture in D major, HWV 424
 * Johann Adolph Hasse – 12 Flute Concertos, Op. 3
 * Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Pièces de Clavecin
 * Jean-Philippe Rameau – Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts
 * Georg Philipp Telemann – 24 Odes, TWV 25:86-109

Opera

 * Tomaso Albinoni – Artamene
 * Andrea Bernasconi – Demofoonte
 * Baldassare Galuppi – Penelope
 * Christoph Willibald Gluck – Artaserse
 * Karl Heinrich Graun – Rodelinda regina de' Longobardi, GraunWV B:I:6
 * George Frideric Handel – Deidamia, HWV 42 (composed 1740)
 * Johann Adolph Hasse – Numa Pompilio
 * Niccolò Jommelli – Semiramide riconosciuta
 * Giovanni Battista Lampugnani – Arsace

Publications

 * Johann Sebastian Bach – Clavier-Übung IV (Nuremberg: Balthasar Schmid), now known as the Goldberg Variations.
 * The Cocquiel Manuscript, B-Br Ms II 3326 Mus, containing sacred music by various composers (including Jacob La Fosse and Abraham van den Kerckhoven)

Methods and theory writings

 * Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre le violoncelle, Op. 24
 * Antoine Terrasson – Historique sur la vielle
 * Carlo Tessarini – Gramatica di musica

Births

 * February 8 – André Grétry, composer (died 1813)
 * February 9
 * Joseph Corfe (died 1820)
 * Henri-Joseph Rigel, composer (died 1799)
 * April 17 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann (died 1801)
 * May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, composer (died 1801)
 * July 17 – Suzette Defoye, opera singer and ballerina
 * July 27 – François-Hippolyte Barthélémon, violinist and composer (died 1808)
 * August 31 – Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, composer (died 1816)
 * September 11 – Johann Jakob Engel (died 1802)
 * September 25 – Wenzel Pichl, singer, violinist and composer (died 1805)
 * November 27 – Jean-Pierre Duport (died 1818)
 * date unknown
 * Franz Xaver Hammer, gambist, cellist and composer (died 1817)
 * Giacomo Rust (died 1786)
 * Anna Brita Wendelius, singer and member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music (died 1804).

Deaths

 * January 5 – Ann Turner Robinson, English soprano
 * February 13 – Johann Fux, composer and theorist (born 1660)
 * March 17 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (born 1671)
 * June 21 – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (born 1703)
 * July 28 – Antonio Vivaldi, composer (born 1678)
 * August – David Owen, Welsh harpist (born 1712)
 * August 24 – Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, French operatic baritone (born 1669)
 * September 3 (or after) – Carlo Francesco Cesarini (born 1666)
 * September 7 – Henri Desmarets, French composer of sacred music (born 1661)
 * probable – Francesco Scarlatti, composer (born 1666)