1785 in music

Events

 * January 1 – Giovanni Paisiello officially leaves his employment at the court of Catherine the Great in Russia, having returned to Italy some months earlier.
 * January 12 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail is produced by impresario Pasquale Bondini's company in Dresden.
 * January 15 – The first performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn (or possibly just three of them) is given in Mozart's own home.
 * January 21 – Soprano Nancy Storace, who was about to give birth, was replaced as Rosina in a Vienna production of Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia by Luisa Laschi, to great acclaim.
 * February 7 – Leopold Mozart leaves Munich for Vienna, with a pupil, Heinrich Marchand, in tow.
 * February 26 – Polish violinist Feliks Janiewicz makes what was probably his debut as a soloist in a concert at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
 * March 7 – King Ferdinand I of Naples awards a lifetime annual salary of 1,200 ducats to Giovanni Paisiello, on the understanding that the latter writes one new opera every year.
 * March 28 – Domenico Cimarosa becomes second organist at the Chapel Royal of Naples.
 * September 19 – Amélie-Julie Candeille makes her Comédie-Française début as a singer.
 * October 13 – The Lord Chamberlain, James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, refuses to grant a licence to Giovanni Gallini for his Italian Opera House in London, unless he appoints a Mr. Crawford as deputy manager.
 * October 26 – Joseph Haydn receives a visit from Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda, to whom he gives a guided tour of Schloss Esterházy.
 * November 22 – The Hermitage Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia, is officially opened.
 * Composer John Antes is appointed warder of the Fulneck Moravian Settlement in England
 * Composer Supply Belcher settles in Maine.
 * Opera composer Michele Mortellari relocates to London from his native Italy.
 * Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany appoints Filippo Maria Gherardeschi organist and maestro di cappella at the Chiesa Conventuale dei Cavalieri di S Stefano at Pisa.
 * Violinist Regina Strinasacchi marries Johann Conrad Schlick, cellist & Konzertmeister of the Gotha ducal band.

Bands formed

 * Band of the Coldstream Guards (16 May)

Published popular music

 * "Cara sposa", music by Johann Christian Bach from the cantata Rinaldo ed Armide (lost)
 * "Song of the Page", music by William Shield from Follies of a Day, or The Marriage of Figaro
 * "Black-eyed Susan", by Robert Broderip

Classical music

 * Carl Friedrich Abel – 4 Trio Sonatas, WK 98–101 (Op. 16)
 * Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – 2 Sonaten, 2 Fantasien und 2 Rondos für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.59
 * Johann Christian Bach
 * 6 Violin Sonatas, Op.10 (posthumously)
 * 2 Symphonies, Op. 18 (posthumously)
 * Ludwig van Beethoven – Three quartets for harpsichord, violin, viola, and cello, in E♭ major, D major, and C major, WoO 36
 * William Billings – "I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me, We Will Go Into The House Of Ye Lord"
 * Luigi Boccherini – Cello Concerto No. 10 in D major, G.483
 * William Boyce, Ten Voluntaries
 * Giuseppe Maria Cambini
 * 6 Flute Quartets, T.145–150
 * 6 Trios for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon, Op. 45
 * Muzio Clementi – Six piano sonatas, Op. 13
 * Francois Devienne – Flute Concerto No.3 in G major
 * Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Six Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses (comp. 1781, first three published 1785)
 * Anton Eberl – Symphony in C major
 * Giuseppe (or Tomasso) Giordani – Caro Mio Ben
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Symphony 83 in G minor "La poule"
 * Symphony 85 in B-flat "La Reine"
 * Symphony 87 in A major, Hob.I:87
 * Overture in D major, Hob.Ia:4
 * 12 Minuets, Hob.IX:8
 * Piano Trios, Op.27 (Hob.XV:2,9,10)
 * Franz Anton Hoffmeister
 * Double Bass Concerto No.1 in E-flat major
 * Keyboard Sonata in A major, WeiH 37
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Piano Concertos 20 in D minor and 21 in C major
 * String Quartet No.18 in A major, K.464
 * String Quartet in C, "Dissonance"
 * Lied zur Gesellenreise, K. 468
 * Davidde penitente, K. 469
 * Fantasia in C minor, K. 475
 * Piano Quartet No. 1, K. 478
 * Giovanni Paisiello – Il ritorno di Perseo, R.2.6 (cantata)
 * Ignaz Pleyel
 * String Quartet
 * Symphony in D major, B.126
 * Joseph Bologne de Saint Georges – 6 String Quartets, Op. 14
 * Johann Schenk – Die Weinlese (singspiel)
 * John Stanley – "Delusive is the poet's dream"
 * Gaetano Valeri – 12 Organ Sonatas, Op. 1
 * Friedrich Witt – Symphony in A major
 * Ernst Wilhelm Wolf – 3 String Quartets, Op. 3
 * Maria Carolina Wolf – Glänzender sinket die Sonne

Opera

 * Gaetano Andreozzi – Giasone e Medea
 * Marcello Bernardini – Le donne bisbetiche, o sia L'antiquario fanatico, Teatro Pace, Rome (during carnival).
 * Pierre-Joseph Candeille – Pizarre, ou La conquête de Pérou, Opéra, Paris (3 May)
 * Luigi Cherubini – La finta principessa, King's Theatre, London (9 April)
 * Domenico Cimarosa – La donna sempre al suo peggior s'appiglia
 * Prosper-Didier Deshayes – Le Faux serment
 * Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Der Hufschmied (Der gelehrte Hufschmied) (German version, text translated by J. C. Kaffka, of Il maniscalco, 1775), Breslau (13 May)
 * Robert Jephson – Campaign, or Love in the East Indies, Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London (12 May)
 * Thomas Linley
 * Hurly-Burly, or The Fairy of the Well, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London (26 December)
 * Strangers at Home, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London (8 December)
 * Michele Mortellari
 * Armida abbandonata, Teatro della Pergola, Florence (autumn)
 * L'infanta supposta, Teatro Ducale, Modena
 * Giovanni Paisiello – La grotta di Trofonio, R.1.69
 * Ignaz Pleyel – Ifigenia in Aulide
 * Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Artemisia
 * Antonio Salieri – La Grotta di Trofonio
 * Giuseppe Sarti – I finti eredi
 * William Shield
 * The Nunnery, Covent Garden, London (12 April)
 * The Choleric Fathers, Covent Garden, London (10 November)
 * Omai, or A Trip Round the World, Covent Garden, London (20 December)
 * Stephen Storace – Gli sposi malcontenti, Burgtheater, Vienna (1 June)

Births

 * February 2 – Isabella Colbran, coloratura soprano and composer (died 1845)
 * March 3
 * Nicola Petrini Zamboni, composer (died 1849)
 * Giovanni Ricordi, violinist and opera publisher (died 1853)
 * March 6 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer (died 1857)
 * March 19 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer (died 1853)
 * April 4 – Bettina Brentano, composer and writer (died 1859)
 * April 19 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, composer (died 1858)
 * August 18 – Friedrich Wieck, piano teacher, father of Clara Schumann (died 1873)
 * September 5 – Thomas Adams, organist and composer (died 1858)
 * September 11 – Alpheus Babcock, American piano maker (died 1842)
 * November 2 – Friedrich Kalkbrenner, pianist and composer (died 1849)
 * date unknown
 * Max Bohrer, German-born composer and cellist (died 1867)
 * Zofia Dmuszewska, Polish actor and opera singer (died 1807)

Deaths

 * January 3 – Baldassare Galuppi, composer (born 1706)
 * April 26 – Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff, composer and noble (born 1744)
 * May 15 – Karel Blažej Kopřiva, organist and composer (born 1756)
 * June 2 – Gottfried August Homilius, organist, cantor and composer (born 1714)
 * June 22 – Matthias Vanden Gheyn, composer (born 1721)
 * August 31 – Pietro Chiari, librettist (born 1712)
 * November 19 – Bernard de Bury, composer (born 1720)
 * December 8 – Antonio Maria Mazzoni, composer (born 1717)
 * December 29 – Johann Heinrich Rolle, composer (born 1716)
 * date unknown
 * Giovanni Battista Gervasio, composer and musician (born c. 1725)
 * Antoine Mahaut, composer and flautist (born 1719)