February 1 – A posthumous performance of Antonio Sacchini's Œdipe à Colone at the Paris Opéra results in the previously unsuccessful opera becoming one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire for several decades.
August 10 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's light work, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, written as a distraction from the composition of his opera Don Giovanni, is performed at an evening entertainment in Vienna.
December – Angelo Tarchi is appointed music director and composer at the King's Theatre in London.
Luigi Boccherini becomes court composer in Berlin.
Ludwig van Beethoven goes to Vienna, where he meets Mozart, but his mother's death forces him to return to Bonn.
Luigi Cherubini settles in Paris.
Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1
Robert Burns – "The Battle of Sherramuir" (to a traditional tune)
Muzio Clementi – Two Symphonies, Op. 18
Giuseppe Gherardeschi – Sonata for Organ "In the Guise of a Military Band..."
Joseph Haydn
The Seven Last Words of Christ
Symphony No. 88 in G
Leopold Kozeluch - Three Symphonies, Op. 22
Joseph Martin Kraus – Symphony in E minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
String Quintet in G minor
Philip Phile – Violin Concerto (lost)
Samuel Arnold – Inkle and Yarico (libretto by George Colman the Younger)
Antoine Ballant – Dobrodetel'nïy volshebnik
Giuseppe Gazzaniga – Don Giovanni
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Don Giovanni (first performed in Prague in the Estates Theatre, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte)
Antonio Salieri – Tarare (libretto by Beaumarchais)
Vicente Martín y Soler – L'arbore di Diana
February 13 – James P. Carrell, singing teacher and composer (d. 1854)
February 24 – Christian Frederik Barth, oboist and composer (d. 1861)
August 15 – Alexander Aliabiev, composer (d. 1851)
November 17 – Michele Carafa, composer (d. 1872)
November 25 – Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer of "Silent Night" (d. 1863)
December 4 – Johan Fredrik Berwald, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1861)
date unknown - Catharina Torenberg, violinist (d. 1866)
February 21 – Antonio Rodríguez de Hita, composer (b. 1722)
March 30 – Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, musician, composer and music collector (b. 1723)
May 28 – Leopold Mozart, violinist, music teacher and composer (b. 1719)
June – Ignazio Fiorillo, opera composer (b. 1715)
June 20 – Carl Friedrich Abel, viola da gamba player and composer (b. 1723)
July 27 - Mary Linley, singer (b. 1758)
August 5 – François Francoeur, violinist and composer (b. 1698)
November 15 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer (b. 1714)
November 23 – Anton Schweitzer, opera composer (b. 1735)
December 9 – Bernhard Joachim Hagen, composer, violinist and lutenist (b. 1720)
date unknown - Edward Harwood (of Darwen), hymn-writer (b. 1707)
1787 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
