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.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Two Preludes through all twelve major keys for piano, Op. 39
William Crotch – The Captivity of Judah (oratorio)
Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 92 in G, "Oxford"
Leopold Anton Kozeluch – Concerto for Clarinet no 2 in E flat major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Clarinet Quintet in A
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
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)
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)
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
June 7 – Václav Jan Kopřiva (b. 1708)
June 14 – Johann Wilhelm Hertel, composer (b. 1727)
July 4 – Cláudio Manuel da Costa, poer 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)
1789 in music Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA