1760 in music

Events

 * November 26 – Joseph Haydn marries Maria Anna Keller, but he and his wife will live apart for most of their lives.
 * John Newton leaves his job for the church, and begins composing hymns.
 * Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frideric Handel, by John Mainwaring, is published anonymously.
 * John Alcock is forced to resign as organist and choirmaster of Lichfield Cathedral.
 * Johann Christian Bach becomes organist of Milan Cathedral.
 * John Garth publishes his Op. 1 cello concertos (written over the previous decade), the first time such compositions have been published in Britain.
 * Johann Baptist Wanhal is brought to Vienna to receive lessons from Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf.

Opera

 * Thomas Arne – Thomas and Sally
 * Johann Christian Bach – Artaserse
 * Nicola Porpora - "Il trionfo di Camilla"
 * Johann Adolph Hasse – Alcide al Bivio
 * Vincenzo Manfredini – Semiramide
 * Niccolò Piccinni – La buona figliuola
 * Jean-Philippe Rameau – Les Paladins

Classical music

 * Johann Albrechtsberger – String Quartet in D
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
 * Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, H.75.5
 * Sechs Sonaten für Clavier mit veränderten Reprisen, Wq.50 (H. 126, 136–140) (published, Berlin; composed 1758–59)
 * William Boyce – Eight Symphonies, op. 2 (published, London: John Walsh; composed over the previous 21 years)
 * François Joseph Gossec – Grande Messe des Morts
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Symphony No.25 in C major, Hob.I:25
 * Partita in B-flat major, Hob.XVI:2
 * Partita in E major, Hob.XVI:13 (attribution in question)
 * Michael Haydn – Concerto for Violin in B-flat major
 * Pierre Hugard – La Toilette, suites for the pardessus de viole
 * Ignacio de Jerusalem – Clarines sonad (misattributed)
 * Franz Xaver Richter
 * 6 Harpsichord Trios
 * 6 Symphonies, Op. 2
 * Christoph Schaffrath – Duetto for Bassoon and Harpsichord in F minor, CSWV F:18
 * Georg Philipp Telemann – Lukas-Passion

Methods and theory writings

 * John Alcock, Sr. – The Life of Miss Fanny Brown
 * Giorgio Antoniotto – L'arte armonica
 * Francesco Geminiani – The Art of Playing the Guitar or Cittra
 * John Mainwaring – Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Frederic Handel
 * Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst
 * Edward Miller – Institutes of Music, or Easy Instructions for the Harpsichord
 * Nicolo Pasquali – The Art of Fingering the Harpsichord
 * Jean-Philippe Rameau – Code de musique pratique
 * Georg Andreas Sorge
 * Anleitung zum Generalbass und zur Composition
 * Compendium Harmonicum
 * William Tans'ur – The Psalm-Singer's Jewel

Births

 * January 10 – Johan Rudolf Zumsteeg, German composer (died 1802)
 * January 19 – Melchor Lopez Jimenez, Spanish composer (died 1822)
 * January 30 – Franz Xaver Partsch, Bohemian composer (died 1822)
 * February 12 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, composer (died 1812)
 * February 15 – Jean-François Le Sueur, French composer (died 1837)
 * March 2 – Charlotta Cederström, born Christina Charlotta Mörner af Morlanda, Swedish patron of the arts (died 1832)
 * March 27 – Ishmail Spicer, American composer (died 1832)
 * April 4 – Juan Manuel Olivares, Venezuelan composer (died 1797)
 * May 10 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French composer of La Marseillaise (died 1836)
 * May 29 – Charlotte Slottsberg, Swedish ballerina (died 1800)
 * July 11 – François-Benoît Hoffman, librettist and playwright (died 1828)
 * June 12 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray, librettist and novelist (died 1797)
 * June 14 – Cándido José Ruano, Spanish composer (died 1803)
 * July 12 – Giuseppe Foppa, Italian librettist (died 1845)
 * September 12 – Gaetano Valeri, Paduan organist and composer (died 1822)
 * September 14 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian-born composer (died 1842)
 * September 29 – Maria Hester Park, British composer (died 1813)
 * October 1 – William Beckford, English novelist, patron of the arts and composer (died 1844)
 * November 9 – Henri-Philippe Gérard, Liègeois composer
 * November 14 – Johann Evangelist Brandl, composer (died 1837)
 * November 30 – Catharine Frydendahl, opera singer (d. 1831)
 * December 2 – Joseph Graetz, German composer (died 1826)
 * December 2 – Joseph Graetz, German composer (died 1826)

Deaths

 * January 18 – Claudio Casciolini, Italian composer (born 1697)
 * February 14 – François Colin de Blamont, French composer (born 1690)
 * February 22 – Anna Magdalena Bach, German singer, second wife and assistant of Johann Sebastian Bach (born 1701)
 * March 2 – François Bouvard, French composer (born 1760)
 * March 14 – Anton Fils, German composer (born 1733)
 * April 12 – Ernst Gottlieb Baron, German lutenist and composer (born 1696)
 * April 24 – Michele Mascitti, music editor and violinist (born c. 1664)
 * May – Girolamo Abos, Italian composer (born 1715)
 * May 10 – Christoph Graupner, German composer (born 1683)
 * August 8 – Henry Needler, English music transcriber (born 1685)
 * October 24 – Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Italian composer (born 1676)
 * November 5 – Pierre Février, French organist, harpsichordist and composer (born 1696)
 * Date unknown – Roque Ceruti, Italian composer (born c. 1683)
 * Date unknown – Roque Ceruti, Italian composer (born c. 1683)