1657 in music

Events

• March 11 – Johann Adam Reincken becomes organist of the Bergkerk at Deventer.
• July 17 – Following the death of Tobias Michael in June, Sebastian Knüpfer is appointed Thomaskantor at Leipzig.
• Maurizio Cazzati becomes the Maestro di Cappella at San Petronio in Bologna and opens his violin school in Bologna.
• King Louis XIV of France engages Étienne Richard as royal harpsichord teacher, in place of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières.

Popular music

• Gaspar de Verlit – Anthology of Christmas carols

Classical music

• Henri Dumont – Meslanges à 2, 3, 4 et 5 parties
• Joannes Florentius a Kempis – Cantiones Natalitiae
• Giovanni Legrenzi – Salmi a cinque
• Heinrich Schütz
• *12 Geistliche Gesänge, Op.13
• *Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener, SWV 432-433
• Barbara Strozzi – Ariette a voce sola, Op.6

[Opera]

• Francesco Cavalli – Artemisia
• Michel de La Guerre – ''Triomphe de l'Amour sur les Bergers et les Bergères''

Births

• March 18 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, organist and composer
• July 25 – Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, composer
• December 15 – Michel Richard Delalande, French composer and organist
• probable – Gaetano Greco, composer

Deaths

• March – John Hilton the younger, lutenist and composer
• March 26 – Jacob van Eyck, nobleman and musician
• June 26 – Tobias Michael
• October 21 – Alessandro Costantini
• October 23 – Domenico Massenzio, Italian composer
• date unknown
• *Franciszek Lilius, composer
• *Pietro Paolo Sabbatini, composer