Events

• In Britain, William Boyce is appointed Master of the King's Musick. ^[1]
• After a tour of Ireland fraught with disagreements, Thomas Arne and his wife, the soprano Cecilia Young, agree to separate.
• Ferdinando Bertoni becomes choirmaster at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice.

Published popular music

• James Oswald – [48] Airs for the Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter, for violin or flute and basso continuo (London)
• Mme Papavoine – Nous voici donc au jour de l'an. Étrennes (Paris)

Classical music

• Charles Avison – Eight Concertos, Op. 4 (London)
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
  • Harpsichord Concerto in F major, H.443 Wq. 33
  • Keyboard Concerto in G major, H.444 Wq. 34
  • Flute Concerto in G major, H.445 Wq. 169
  • Trio Sonata in B-flat major, H.587 Wq. 159
  • Symphony in D major, H.651 Wq. 176
• Gaspard Fritz – 6 Violin Sonatas^{[ citation needed]} (published in Paris as Sei sonate, Op. 3, in 1756)
• Francesco Geminiani – Six Concertos, Op. 2, second edition, corrected and enlarged, with some new movements, by the author, and now published in score (London: John Johnson); originally published 1732
• Carl Heinrich Graun – Der Tod Jesu
• Leopold Mozart – Divertimento in F major "Musical Sleigh Ride"
• John Christopher Smith – Six Suits [ sic] of Lessons for the Harpsichord, Op. 3 (London: John Walsh)
• Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Tod Jesu TWV 5:6

Opera

• Johann Friedrich Agricola – Il tempio d'amore
• Pierre Montan Berton – Deucalion et Pyrrha
• Egidio Duni – L'Olimpiade
• Baldassare Galuppi
  • La diavolessa
  • Le nozze di Dorina (premiered Nov. in Venice)
• Carl Heinrich Graun – Montezuma (libretto by King Frederick the Great, composed 1754 first performed Jan. 6, 1755)
• Johann Adolph Hasse – Ezio (Final version premiered Jan. 20 in Dresden)
• Niccolò Jommelli – Pelope
• Antonio Mazzoni – Antigono (Was not performed because of the Lisbon Earthquake, premiered in 2011)
• John Christopher Smith – The Fairies

Methods and theory writings

• Touissant Bordet – Méthode raisonnée pour apprendre la musique
• Marianus Königsperger – Der wohl-unterwiesene Clavier-Schüler
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Anleitung zum Clavierspielen
• Christoph Nichelmann – Die Melodie
• Johann Joachim Quantz – Autobiography
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – Erreurs sur la musique dans l'Encyclopédie
• Georg Andreas Sorge – Ausweichungs-Tabellen

Births

• January 16 – Maria Theresia Ahlefeldt, composer (died 1810)
• February 5 – Caroline Müller, operatic mezzo-soprano, actress and dancer (died 1826)
• March 2 – Antoine-Frédéric Gresnick, opera composer (died 1799)
• April 16 – Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, copyist and painter (died 1842)
• May 12 – Giovanni Battista Viotti (died 1824)
• June 1 – Federigo Fiorillo, arranger and composer (died 1823)
• June 18 – Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre, operatic mezzo-soprano, actress and dancer (died 1821)
• August 1 – Antonio Capuzzi, composer and violinist (died 1818)
• November 8 – Edmond de Favières, French librettist (died 1837)
• November 10 – Franz Anton Ries, violinist (died 1846)
• November 30 – Agnieszka Truskolaska, opera singer (died 1831)
• date unknown – John Christopher Moller, early American composer (died 1803)

Deaths

• January 11 – Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, harpsichordist and composer (born c.1705)
• January 15 – Azzolino Bernardino Della Ciaja, Italian composer (born 1671)
• January 19 – Jean-Pierre Christin, scientist and musician (born 1683)
• April – Anastasia Robinson, operatic soprano (born c.1692)
• April 30 – Jean-Baptiste Oudry, composer and painter (born 1686)
• June 21 – Giovanni Porta, opera composer (born c.1675)
• July 4 – John Cennick, hymn-writer (born 1718)
• July 6 – Pietro Paolo Bencini, Italian composer and Kapellmeister (born c.1670)
• July 9 – Johann Gottlob Harrer, German composer and choir leader (born 1703)
• September 30 – Francesco Durante, composer (born 1684) ^[2]
• October 4 – Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet, of Penycuik, composer (born 1676)
• October 28 – Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (born 1689)
• November 25 – Johann Georg Pisendel, composer (born 1687)
• December 1 – Maurice Greene, organist and composer (born 1696)
• December 8 – Jean-Baptiste Stuck, cellist and composer (born 1680)
• date unknown
  • José Elías, composer and organist (born c. 1678)
  • Alexander Gordon, antiquary and singer (born c.1692)
  • Manuel de Zumaya, Mexican composer (born c.1678)

References