1777 in music

Events

 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resigns his position in the Salzburg court.
 * Samuel Arnold becomes musical director of the Haymarket Theatre in London.
 * Über die Theorie der Musik by Johann Nikolaus Forkel is published in Göttingen.
 * Thomas Arne and his wife are reconciled after a separation of over twenty years.

Opera

 * Agostino Accorimboni – Nitteti
 * Luigi de Baillou – Il casino di campagna
 * Domenico Cimarosa
 * L'Armida immaginaria
 * Il fanatico per gli antichi romani
 * I tre amanti
 * Christoph Willibald Gluck – Armide
 * Joseph Haydn – Il mondo della luna
 * Elizabeth Ryves – The Prude

Classical music

 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – 4 Keyboard Trios, Wq.91
 * Johann Christian Bach – 6 Keyboard Concertos, Op. 13
 * Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach – Flute Sonata No.1 in D major
 * Charles Burney – 4 Sonatas for Keyboard 4-Hands
 * Giuseppe Maria Cambini – 6 Flute Quintets, Op. 8
 * Michael Haydn – Missa S Hieronymi
 * Gottfried August Homilius – Christmas Oratorio
 * John Keeble – Diapason Movement in F major
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 9 ("Jeunehomme")
 * Josef Mysliveček – Isacco figura del redentore (oratorio)
 * Antonio Salieri – La Passione di Gesu Christo
 * Joseph Bologne Saint-Georges – 2 Symphonies concertantes, Op. 9
 * Carl Stamitz
 * 6 Symphonies, Op. 13
 * Clarinet Concerto No.2 in B-flat major
 * Johann Baptist Wanhal – Violin Concerto in B-flat major

Popular Music

 * "A-Hunting We Will Go" w.m. Thomas Arne (written for insertion into a London production of The Beggar's Opera and first sung by the contralto Mrs. Farrell playing Captain Macheath (sic.))

Methods and theory writings

 * Johann Nikolaus Forkel – Über die Theorie der Musik
 * Johann Caspar Heck – The Art of Playing Thorough Bass
 * Valentin Roeser – Gamme et 12 Duo pour la Flûte Traversière

Births

 * January 1 – Micah Hawkins, composer
 * January 3 – Louis Poinsot, instrument maker
 * January 8 – Filippo Traetta, musicologist
 * January 12 – Stepan Davydov, Russian composer (died 1825)
 * April 18 – Ignac Ruzitska, composer
 * May 4 – Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens, composer
 * May 8 – Mateli Magdalena Kuivalatar, Finnish-Carelian Folksinger
 * May 12 – Giovanni Morandi, Italian composer (died 1856)
 * May 28 – Joseph-Henri-Ignace Mees, composer
 * June 2 – Christian Traugott Tag, composer
 * September 30 – Ramon Felix Cuellar y Altarriba, composer
 * October 3 – Hedda Hjortsberg, ballerina
 * October 6 – William Russell, organist and composer
 * November 5 – Filippo Taglioni, dancer and choreographer
 * December 16 – János Fusz, composer

Deaths

 * January 1 – Emanuele Barbella, composer
 * January 22 – Simon Leduc, composer violinist (born 1742)
 * March 1 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil
 * July 27 – William Hayes, composer (b. 1708)
 * August 17 – Giuseppe Scarlatti, composer
 * August 23 – Giuseppe Sellitti, composer
 * September 1 – Johann Ernst Bach, composer
 * November – Marco Coltellini, opera librettist (b. 1724)
 * November 30 – Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (b. 1703)
 * December 21 – Anton Cajetan Adlgasser, organist (b. 1729)