March 23 – Johann Sebastian Bach revives his St Matthew Passion BWV 244 (BC D 3b) with some further revisions of instrumentation and voicing at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig: the work is now scored with a ripieno soprano choir and viola da gamba and harpsichord in the second orchestra (the organ for this orchestra is under repair).
April 13 – First performance of Handel's oratorio Messiah staged at the Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin. Matthew Dubourg leads the orchestra. Handel leaves Ireland on 13 August.
December 7 – The Berlin Court Opera is inaugurated with a performance of Carl Heinrich Graun's Cleopatra e Cesare.
Joseph Benda joins the Prussian royal orchestra.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet, BWV 212 ("Peasant Cantata")
Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, BWV 893, book 2 of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Das Wohltemperierte Klavier)
The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080, earliest known manuscript (P200)
George Frideric Handel – Messiah
Franz Xaver Richter – Kemptener Te Deum
Giuseppe Carcani – Demetrio
Carl Heinrich Graun – Cesare e Cleopatra
Niccolò Jommelli – Don Chichibio
Gennaro Manna – Tito Manlio
May 8 – Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz, Czech composer (died 1790)
August 19 – Jean Dauberval, French dancer (died 1806)
Probable date – Martha Ray, English singer (murdered 1779)
January 24 (buried) – Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter, Austrian composer (born 1665)
April 16 – Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino, Paduan-born librettist (born 1672)
June 28 - Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, Czech composer (born 1689)
July 22 - Andrea Adami da Bolsena, Italian castrato, master of the papal choir (born 1663)
July 12 – Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, Veronese-born violinist and composer (born 1675)
August 25 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (born 1704)
date unknown - Matteo Goffriller, Italian cello-maker (born 1659)
1742 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
