1788 in music

Events

 * January 9 – The elderly Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach reviews Johann Nikolaus Forkel's book Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik in the Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent.
 * January 22 – Composer Ignaz Pleyel marries Franziska Gabrielle Ignatia Lefebvre, daughter of a tapestry maker.
 * January 26 – Australia Day: HMS Sirius (1786) leads the First Fleet into landing at Sydney Cove (which will become Sydney) to begin the settlement of Australia; it carries Surgeon George Worgan's London-made square piano which will remain in the country and be donated to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts collection in 2016.
 * February 6 – The Kärntnertortheater in Vienna closes, after the German Opera Company disbands.
 * February 12 – Antonio Salieri is appointed Imperial Royal Kapellmeister by Emperor Joseph II of Austria, in succession to Giuseppe Bonno, who is forcibly retired.
 * March 6 – Domenico Cimarosa, recently invited to St Petersburg by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, premières his La felicità inaspetata, which fails to impress his new patron.
 * June 25 – Publication of three string quintets (K.406, 515, 516) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is postponed for a year because of a lack of take-up of subscriptions.
 * July 17 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf is officially dismissed from his post as Amtshauptmann of Freiwaldau, but actually continues in the position for another seven years.
 * November 25 – Three weeks before his death, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach writes his last known letter, to Johann Jacob Heinrich Westphal.

Opera

 * Giuseppe Cambini – Le bon pére
 * Thomas Carter – The Constant Maid, or Poll of Plympton
 * Luigi Cherubini – Ifigenia in Aulide
 * Domenico Cimarosa
 * La felicità inaspettata
 * La vergine del sole
 * Franz Danzi – Die Mitternachtsstunde
 * Giovanni Paisiello
 * L'Amor Contrastato
 * Fedra, premiered Jan. 1 in Naples
 * Antonio Sacchini – Arvire et Évélina (posthumous "tragédie lyrique", finished by Jean-Baptiste Rey), premiered April 29.
 * Antonio Salieri
 * Axur, Re d'Ormus (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Beaumarchais)
 * Il Talismano (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Goldoni)
 * Joseph Weigl – Il pazzo per forza

Classical music

 * William Billings – The Singing Master’s Assistant (including "Vermont" and "Washington")
 * Henry Bishop – Six New Minuets and Twelve Country Dances (including "Knoll Park")
 * Domenico Cimarosa – Atene edificata (cantata)
 * Muzio Clementi
 * 3 Piano Trios, Op.21
 * 3 Piano Trios, Op.22
 * Keyboard sonata op.24/1
 * Michel Corrette – Messe pour le tems de Noël
 * Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – 6 String Quartets
 * Jan Ladislav Dussek
 * 3 Sonatas for Keyboard with Violin, Op.5
 * Three piano sonatas C.41–43
 * Joseph-Francois Garnier – Simphonie Concertante for 2 Oboes
 * Joseph Haydn
 * 8 Nocturnes, Hob.II:25–32
 * String Quartet in C major, Hob.III:57
 * String Quartet in G major, Hob.III:58
 * String Quartet in E major, Hob.III:59
 * String Quartet in A major, Hob.III:60
 * String Quartet in F minor, Hob.III:61
 * String Quartet in B-flat major, Hob.III:62
 * Baryton Trio in A major, Hob.XI:6
 * Baryton Trio in A major, Hob.XI:8
 * Symphony No.90 in C major, Hob.I:90
 * Symphony No.91 in E-flat major, Hob.I:91
 * Michael Haydn
 * Die Ährenleserin (singspiel)
 * Symphony No.37 in D major, MH 476
 * Pelham Humfrey – O Lord, My God
 * Frantisek Kotzwara – The Battle of Prague (piano with commentary)
 * Leopold Kozeluch – Piano Sonata, Op.26 No.3
 * Anton Kraft – 3 Cello Sonatas, Op. 1
 * Rodolphe Kreutzer – Violin Concerto No.6 in E minor
 * Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz – 6 Harp Sonatas, Opp. 13–14
 * Vicente Martín y Soler – 12 Canzonette Italiane
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * 6 German Dances, K.536
 * Ein deutsches Kriegslied, K.539
 * Adagio in B minor, K.540 (dated March 19)
 * Un bacio di mano, K.541 (dated May)
 * Piano Trio in E major, K.542
 * Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K.543
 * Piano Trio in C major, K.548
 * Più non si trovano, K.549
 * Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
 * Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551, "Jupiter"
 * Canon for 3 Voices in A major (Caro bell'idol mio), K.562
 * Divertimento in E-flat major, K.563
 * Piano Trio in G major, K.564
 * 6 German Dances, K.567
 * 12 Minuets, K.568
 * Giovanni Paisiello – Duet for two violins
 * Ignaz Pleyel
 * Violin Concerto in D major, B.103A
 * 3 Quintets, B.280–282
 * 6 Keyboard Trios, B.431–436
 * Alexander Reinagle – Federal March
 * Giuseppe Sarti – 3 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Op. 4
 * Giovanni Battista Viotti
 * Violin Concerto No.13 in A major
 * Violin Concerto No.14 in A minor
 * 6 Violin Sonatas, W 5.1–6 (Op. 4)

Methods and theory writings

 * Johann Nikolaus Forkel – Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik
 * Ferdinand Kauer – Kurzgefaßte Anweisung das Violoncell zu spielen
 * Vincenzo Manfredini – Difesa della musica moderna e de' suoi celebri esecutori
 * Ernst Wilhelm Wolf – Musikalischer Unterricht

Births

 * January 5 – Caspar Ett, composer and musician (died 1847)
 * January 8
 * Erzherzog Rudolph, composer and archduke (died 1831)
 * Duke Eugen of Württemberg, composer and general (died 1857)
 * January 22 – George Gordon Byron, lyricist and poet (died 1824)
 * January 31 – Felice Romani, librettist and writer (died 1865)
 * February 10 – Johann Peter Pixis, composer (died 1874)
 * March 10 – Joseph von Eichendorff, lyricist and poet (died 1857)
 * May 16 – Friedrich Rückert, librettist and poet (died 1866)
 * August 20 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer (died 1878)
 * August 26 – Aloys Schmitt, composer (died 1866)
 * September 5 – George Macfarren, lyricist (died 1843)
 * September 28 – Karl Christian Philipp Reichel composer (died 1857)
 * October 11 – Simon Sechter, composer (died 1867)
 * October 20 – Philip Knapton, composer (died 1833)
 * November 6 – Giuseppe Donizetti, composer (died 1856)
 * November 11 – Michał Wielhorski, Russian composer (died 1856)
 * December 18 – Camille Pleyel, musician (died 1855)
 * December 21 – Charles Chaulieu Sr., composer (died 1849)
 * December 26 – Carl Anton Philipp Braun, composer (died 1835)
 * date unknown
 * Brita Catharina Lidbeck, Swedish concert singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (died 1864)
 * John David Loder, composer and violinist (died 1846)

Deaths

 * January 15 – Gaetano Latilla, composer (b. 1711)
 * March 2 – Salomon Gessner, lyricist and poet (born 1730)
 * March 29 – Charles Wesley, hymn-writer (b. 1707)
 * April 12
 * Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer (b. 1720)
 * Carl Joseph Toeschi, composer (born 1731)
 * April 15 – Giuseppe Bonno, composer (b. 1711)
 * May 17 – Dorothea Biehl, librettist (born 1731)
 * June 28 – Johann Christoph Vogel, composer
 * July 14 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, composer (b. 1728)
 * November 2 – Johann Samuel Schröter, German composer (born 1753)
 * December 14 – Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, composer (b. 1714)
 * December 12 – Joseph Gibbs, composer (b. 1699)