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.
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.
Johann Christian Bach – Amadis de Gaule
Domenico Cimarosa – L'infedeltà fedele
Christoph Willibald Gluck – Iphigénie en Tauride
Joseph Haydn - L'isola disabitata
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zaide
Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 70
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
Francesco Antonio Vallotti – Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica (On the scientific theory and practice of modern music)
January 8 – John White, composer
January 15 – Jean Coralli, ballet producer and choreographer
February 5 – François van Campenhout, singer and composer (d. 1848)
February 22 – Joachim Nicolas Eggert, composer (d. 1813)
February 23 – Johann Caspar Aiblinger, composer (d. 1867)
March 1 – Jacob Gottfried Weber, composer (d. 1839)
March 13 – Oliver Shaw, composer (d. 1848)
April 21 – William Knyvett, composer
May 28 – Thomas Moore, poet and lyricist
August 1 – Francis Scott Key, songwriter
September 10 – Louis Alexandre Piccinni
October 15 – Johan Olof Wallin, songwriting bishop
February 2 – Georg Philipp Kress, composer
February 7 – William Boyce, composer
April 6 – Tommaso Traetta, composer
April 7 – Martha Ray, singer
December 5 – Hermann Anton Gelinek, organist and violinist (born 1709)
December 28 – Gennaro Manna, composer
date unknown – Josse Boutmy, organist and harpsichordist (born 1697)
1779 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
