1789 in music

Events

 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart travels to Berlin.
 * Joseph Haydn meets Maria Anna von Genzinger.
 * Adalbert Gyrowetz arrives in Paris.
 * Luigi Cherubini becomes music director for the Théâtre Monsieur.
 * Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach becomes Kapellmeister at Berlin.
 * Anna Storace appears in a London production of Giovanni Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
 * Mozart writes to his fellow Freemason and benefactor, Puchberg, saying that next time they meet, he will tell him about Antonio Salieri’s plots "which, however, have completely failed".
 * Ignaz Joseph Pleyel becomes Kapellmeister of Strasbourg Cathedral in succession to Franz Xaver Richter.

Classical music

 * Ludwig van Beethoven – Two Preludes through all twelve major keys for piano, Op. 39
 * William Hamilton Bird – The Oriental Miscellany
 * William Crotch – The Captivity of Judah (oratorio)
 * Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – String Quintet in G major, Kr.190
 * Jean-Louis Duport – 6 Cello Sonatas, Op. 4
 * Jan Ladislav Dussek – Piano Sonatas No. 4–6, Op. 10
 * John Gunn – 40 Favorite Scotch Airs for Violin, Flute, or Cello
 * Joseph Haydn
 * Symphony No. 92 in G, "Oxford"
 * Fantasia in C major, Hob.XVII:4
 * Leopold Anton Kozeluch – Concerto for Clarinet no 2 in E flat major
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * Clarinet Quintet in A
 * Un moto di gioia mi sento, K.579
 * Vasilj Alekseevič Paškevič – Muzyka operyi Komitscheskoi Fewej
 * Ignaz Pleyel
 * String Quintet in F major, B.285
 * 3 Flute Quartets, B.381–383
 * 6 Violin Duos, B.513–518
 * Karl Leopold Röllig – Kleine Tonstücke für die Glasharmonika
 * Daniel Gottlob Türk – Klaviersonaten, größtenteils für Kenner
 * Giovanni Battista Viotti – Violin Concerto No.16 in E minor

Opera

 * Domenico Cimarosa – I Due Baroni
 * André Grétry – Raoul Barbe-Bleue
 * Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne – Nephté
 * Giovanni Paisiello – Nina
 * Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Brenno; Claudine von Villa Bella
 * Antonio Salieri – Il Pastor fido; La Cifra; both with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
 * Stephen Storace – The Haunted Tower
 * Paul Wranitzky – Oberon, König der Elfen

Methods and theory writings

 * André Grétry – Mémoires, ou essai sur la musique
 * John Gunn – The Theory and Practice of Fingering the Violoncello
 * Manuel da Paixão Ribeiro – Nova arte de viola
 * Luigi Antonio Sabbatini – Elementi teorici della musica
 * Daniel Gottlob Türk
 * Klavierscule
 * Von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten

Births

 * January 30 – George Augustus Kollmann, composer
 * February 1 – Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, composer (d. 1861)
 * February 8 – Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, composer (d. 1878)
 * February 15 – Friedrich Fesca, composer (d. 1826)
 * May 24 – Cathinka Buchwieser, German opera singer and actress (d.1828)
 * June 27 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (d. 1860)
 * September 1 – Franz Anton Adam Stockhausen, composer
 * October 18 – Giovanni Tadolini, composer
 * October 24 – Ramon Carnicer y Batlle, composer (d. 1855)
 * October 26 – Joseph Mayseder
 * October 28 – Johann Schneider, composer
 * November 13 – Martin de Ron, composer
 * December 8 – John Fawcett, composer (d. 1867)
 * December 14 – Maria Agata Szymanowska, composer (d. 1831)

Deaths

 * January 1 – Christleib Siegmund Binder, composer
 * January 2 – Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schavensee, composer
 * January 20 – Johann Christoph Oley, composer
 * February 2 – Armand-Louis Couperin, organist and composer (b. 1727)
 * May 10 – Guillaume Gommaire Kennis, composer
 * May 12 – Robert Bremner, music collector and publisher (born 1713)
 * June 7 – Václav Jan Kopřiva (b. 1708)
 * June 14 – Johann Wilhelm Hertel, composer (b. 1727)
 * July 4 – Cláudio Manuel da Costa, poet and conductor (b. 1729)
 * July 15 – Jacques Duphly, composer (b. 1715)
 * September 11 – Luka Sorkočević, composer (b. 1734) (suicide)
 * September 12 – Franz Xaver Richter, composer (b. 1709)
 * October 24 – Joaquin de Oxinaga, composer
 * date unknown
 * Minette, actress, singer and dancer (b. 1767) (killed in Haitian race riot)
 * Andreas Lidl, British composer (born c. 1740)