1759 in music

Events

 * Johann Friedrich Agricola succeeds Carl Heinrich Graun as director of Frederick the Great's royal opera.
 * Castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti makes his debut at the Perugia carnival, in a female role.
 * Tommaso Traetta becomes court composer at Parma.

Popular music

 * None listed

Opera

 * Johann Ernst Eberlin – Demofoonte (lost)
 * Baldassare Galuppi – La clemenza di Tito
 * Florian Leopold Gassmann – Gli uccellatori
 * Christoph Willibald Gluck – L'Arbre enchantée; Cythère Assiégée
 * François Danican Philidor – Blaise le savetier
 * Niccolò Piccinni – Ciro riconosciuto
 * Tommaso Traetta – Ippolito ed Aricia
 * Johann Adolph Hasse
 * La clemenza di Tito
 * Achille in Sciro

Classical music

 * Carl Friedrich Abel – 6 Symphonies, Op. 1
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Viola da Gamba Sonata in G minor, H.510
 * Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Pieces for Musical Clock
 * Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Pièces de clavecin
 * William Boyce – "Heart of Oak"
 * François Joseph Gossec – Sei sinfonie a più stromenti, op.4
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:G1
 * Symphony no 1 in D Major Hob.I:1
 * Leopold Mozart
 * Der Morgen und der Abend (pieces for keyboard)
 * Nannerl's Music Book
 * Johan Helmich Roman – Concerto Grosso, BeRI 45
 * Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Messias, TWV 6:4

Methods and music theory

 * Pietro Gianotti – Le guide du compositeur
 * Cornforth Gilson – Lessons on the Practice of Singing
 * Antoine Mahaut – Nouvelle Méthode pour jouer la Flûte Traversière
 * Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten und neuen Musik
 * Robert Smith – Harmonics, or The Philosophy of Musical Sounds

Births

 * January 19 – Karl Alexander Herklots, librettist and author (died 1830)
 * January 24 – Francesco Saverio Salfi, librettist and writer (died 1832)
 * January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist (died 1796)
 * January 31 – François Devienne, composer (died 1803)
 * February 1 – Karl Friedrich Hensler, librettist and author (died 1825)
 * February 11 – Ernst von Gemmingen, composer and diplomat (died 1813)
 * February 27 – Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab, music editor and composer (died 1813)
 * April 18 – Jacques Widerkehr, Alsatian composer and cellist (died 1823)
 * 15 May – Maria Theresia von Paradis, musician and composer (died 1824)
 * May 22 – Gervais-François Couperin, French composer (died 1826)
 * June 19 – Helen Maria Williams, librettist and writer (died 1827)
 * 19 July – Marianna Auenbrugger, composer (died 1782)
 * July 29 – Antonio Simone Sografi, librettist and playwright (died 1818)
 * November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, librettist and poet (died 1805)
 * November 27 – Franz Krommer, composer (died 1831)
 * December 25 – John Beckwith, composer and musician (died 1809)
 * unknown date
 * Franz Gleissner, German composer (died 1818)
 * William Matthews of Nottingham, composer

Deaths

 * March 19 – Sebastian Bodinus, German composer (born c. 1700)
 * April 14 – George Frideric Handel, composer (born 1685)
 * June 12 – William Collins, librettist and poet (born 1721)
 * June 22 – Louis de Cahusac, librettist (born 1706)
 * July 25 – Johann Christoph Altnickol, organist, singer and composer (born 1719)
 * August 8 – Carl Heinrich Graun, composer (born 1704)
 * August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, librettist and poet (born 1715)
 * September 4 – Girolamo Chiti, composer
 * October 18 – Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, French composer (born c. 1680)
 * date unknown – Gustavus Waltz, singer