1779 in music

Events

 * February 16 – Composer William Boyce is buried in St Paul's Cathedral. The music at his funeral features the massed choirs of St Paul's itself, Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
 * March 7 – Griffith Jones, aged about 21, is recommended for membership of the Royal Society of Musicians.
 * April – The London Magazine reports on the organ-playing of three-year-old prodigy William Crotch.
 * December 26 – Teatro alla Scala in Milan opens its operatic carnival season with Josef Mysliveček's new opera Armida.
 * The opera house at Eszterháza burns down.
 * Mezzo-soprano Luigia Polzelli and her violinist husband Antonio arrive at the Esterházy court, where she quickly becomes the lover of Joseph Haydn.

Opera

 * Johann Christian Bach – Amadis de Gaule (premiered Dec. 14 in Paris)
 * Domenico Cimarosa
 * L'infedeltà fedele
 * L'italiana in Londra (premiered Dec. 28 in Rome)
 * Il matrimonio per raggiro
 * Christoph Willibald Gluck – Iphigénie en Tauride (premiered May 18 in Paris)
 * André Ernest Modeste Grétry – L'amant jaloux (first published, premiered 1778)
 * Joseph Haydn – L'isola disabitata
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zaide
 * Giovanni Paisiello – Demetrio, R.1.59
 * Antonio Salieri – Il Talismano

Classical music

 * Anna Amalia – Organ Trio in C major
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
 * Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.55
 * Rondo in E major, Wq. 57, H.265
 * Rondo in F major, Wq. 57, H.266
 * Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Sonates en Quatuor, Op. 3 (Paris)
 * William Billings – Music in Miniature
 * William Boyce – 10 Voluntaries for the Organ
 * Muzio Clementi
 * 6 Sonatas, Op. 2
 * 3 Piano Duets and 3 Sonatas, Op. 3
 * François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie Concertante du Ballet de Mirza, B.90
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Symphony No. 70 in D major
 * Symphony No. 71 in B-flat major, Hob.I:71
 * Symphony No. 75 in D Major
 * Aria: "Quando la rosa"
 * Michael Haydn – Symphony No.23 in D major, MH 287, P.43
 * Johann Adam Hiller – "Lieder und Arien aus Sophiens Reise", compilation including pieces from Mozart.
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Kommet her, ihr frechen Sünder, K.146/317b
 * Mass in C major, K.317 (Composed March 23, Premiered April 4 in Salzburg)
 * Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318 (Composed April 26)
 * Symphony No.33 in B-flat major, K.319
 * Serenade in D major, "Posthorn" K.320
 * Vesperae solennes de Dominica in C. K.341
 * Church Sonata in C major, K.329/317a
 * 2 Marches, K.335/320a
 * Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K.364/320d
 * Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos, K.365/316a
 * Johann Heinrich Rolle – Thirza und ihre Söhne (oratorio)
 * Johann Adolph Hasse - Mass in E-flat major
 * Joseph Bologne Saint-Georges – 2 Symphonies, Op.11
 * Antonio Salieri – Organ Concerto in C major
 * William Shrubsole – "Miles's Lane (All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name)", in The Gospel Magazine and Moral Miscellany, Vol.6.
 * Maria Carolina Wolf – "Die Rose"
 * Carl Friedrich Zelter – Viola Concerto in E-flat major

Methods and theory writings

 * Joseph Amiot – Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois
 * Anton Bemitzrieder – Nouvel essai sur l'harmonie
 * François Vincent Corbelin – Méthode de Harpe
 * Franz Paul Rigler – Anleitung zum Klavier
 * Francisco Inácio Solano – Novo tratado de musica metrica, e rythmica
 * Francesco Antonio Vallotti – Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica (On the scientific theory and practice of modern music)

Births

 * January 8 – John White, organist and composer
 * January 15 – Jean Coralli, ballet producer and choreographer
 * February 1 – Nikolaus von Krufft, Austrian composer (died 1818)
 * February 2 – Georg Heinrich Lux, organist and composer (died 1861)
 * February 5 – François van Campenhout, singer and composer (d. 1848)
 * February 17 – Wilhelm Friedrich Riem, composer (died 1857)
 * February 22 – Joachim Nicolas Eggert, composer (d. 1813)
 * February 23 – Johann Caspar Aiblinger, composer (d. 1867)
 * February 28 – Henry Darondeau, composer (died 1865)
 * March 1 – Jacob Gottfried Weber, composer (d. 1839)
 * March 13 – Oliver Shaw, composer (d. 1848)
 * April 11 – Louise Reichardt, German composer (died 1826)
 * April 21 – William Knyvett, composer
 * May 28 – Thomas Moore, poet and lyricist
 * June 23 – Johann Baptist Schiedermayr, composer (died 1840)
 * July 20 – Ignaz Schuster, bass and composer (died 1835)
 * August 1 – Francis Scott Key, songwriter (died 1843)
 * September 8 – Johann Philipp Samuel Schmidt, composer (died 1853)
 * September 10 – Louis Alexandre Piccinni, composer
 * October 15
 * August Ferdinand Häser, composer (died 1844)
 * Johan Olof Wallin, songwriting bishop
 * November 14 – Adam Oehlenschläger poet and lyricist (died 1850)
 * date unknown
 * Georges-Joseph-Laurent Lambert, composer (died 1852)

Deaths

 * January 20 – David Garrick, librettist (born 1717)
 * February 7 – William Boyce, composer, 69
 * February 12 – Hinrich Philip Johnsen, composer (born 1717)
 * April 6 – Tommaso Traetta, composer, 52
 * April 7 – Martha Ray, singer, 32/33 (murdered)
 * June 6 – Joseph Inchbald, actor and singer, 44
 * November 27 – Josse Boutmy, organist and harpsichordist, 82
 * December 5 – Hermann Anton Gelinek, organist and violinist, 70
 * December 28 – Gennaro Manna, composer, 64
 * December - Richard Morris, collector of folk songs, 76
 * unknown date – Edward Jones, Welsh composer, 49/50