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.
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.
April 29 – Première of Antonio Sacchini's "tragédie lyrique" completed after the composer's death by Jean-Baptiste Rey.
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.
Giuseppe Cambini – Le bon pére
Thomas Carter – The Constant Maid, or Poll of Plympton
Luigi Cherubini – Ifigenia in Aulide
Franz Danzi – Die Mitternachtsstunde
Giovanni Paisiello – L'Amor Contrastato
Antonio Sacchini - Arvire et Évélina (posthumous, finished by J.-B. Rey)
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
Muzio Clementi – Keyboard sonata op.24/1
Jan Ladislav Dussek – Three piano sonatas C.41–43
Michael Haydn – Die Ährenleserin (singspiel)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphonies 39 in E flat, 40 in G minor and 41 in C
February 10 – Johann Peter Pixis, composer (died 1874)
August 20 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer (died 1878)
October 11 – Simon Sechter, composer (died 1867)
date unknown – Brita Catharina Lidbeck, Swedish concert singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (died 1864)
January 15 – Gaetano Latilla, composer (b. 1711)
March 29 – Charles Wesley, hymn-writer (b. 1707)
April 12 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer (b. 1720)
April 15 – Giuseppe Bonno, composer (b. 1711)
June 28 – Johann Christoph Vogel, composer
July 14 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, composer (b. 1728)
December 14 – Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, composer (b. 1714)
December 12 – Joseph Gibbs, composer (b. 1699)
1788 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
