1712 in music

Events

• March 18 – Georg Philipp Telemann arrives in Frankfurt to take up his new post as city director of music and Kapellmeister at the Barfüsserkirche.
• March 25 – Approximate date of the première of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Mark Passion pastiche at the chapel of Wilhelmsburg Castle.
• September – George Frideric Handel re-locates to London, with the permission of his patron, the future King George I of Great Britain.
• Johann Georg Pisendel joins the court orchestra at Dresden.

Classical music

• Tomaso Albinoni – 12 Trattenimenti armonici, Op. 6
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• *Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541
• *Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564
• *Fantasia in G major, BWV 572
• *Toccata in F-sharp minor, BWV 910
• *Fugue in B minor, BWV 951
• *Fughetta in C minor, BWV 961
• *Suite in E minor for lute, BWV 996
• Francesco Antonio Bonporti – 10 Inventions, Op. 10
• Pieter Bustijn – 9 Suittes pour le clavessin
• Henry Carey – Setting of "The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare" by Joseph Addison
• Arcangelo Corelli – Twelve Concerti Grossi, Op. 6
• Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco
• *Concerti a quattro da chiesa, Op. 2
• *12 Trio Sonatas, Op. 3
• Christoph Graupner
• *Jesus ist und bleibt mein Leben, GWV 1107/12
• *Mein Gott, warum hast du mich verlassen?, GWV 1118/12a
• *Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, GWV 1143/12
• *Demütiget euch nun, GWV 1144/12
• *Zähle meine Flucht, GWV 1154/12b
• *Wer da glaubet dass Jesus sei der Christ, GWV 1171/12
• George Frideric Handel – O Sing unto the Lord a New Song, HWV 249a
• Jacques-Martin Hotteterre
• *Sonates en trio pour les flûtes traversières et a bec, violon, hautbois, Op. 3
• *Suite in B minor, Op. 4
• Reinhard Keiser – Brockes-Passion
• Ferdinando Antonio Lazzari – Concerto in D major
• John Loeillet – Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet
• Benedetto Marcello – 12 Recorder Sonatas, Op. 2
• Jean-Baptiste Morin – Cantates françoises à une et trois voix, Op. 6
• James Paisible – The Gloucester. Mr. Isaac's new dance, made for Her Majesty's Birth Day...
• Anne Danican Philidor – Premier livre de pièces
• Giovanni Antonion Piani – 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 1
• Charles Piroye – Pièces d'orgue
• Jean-Féry Rebel – Boutade
• Georg Philipp Telemann
• *Das ist meine Freude, TWV 8:17
• *Ouverture-Suite, TWV 55:A5
• Francesco Maria Veracini – Il trionfo della innocenza patrocinata da S. NiccoI
• Antonio Vivaldi – Violin Concerto in D major, RV 212
• Johann Gottfried Walther – Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht
• Jan Dismas Zelenka – Attendite et videte, ZWV 59

Opera

• André Campra – Idomenée
• André Cardinal Destouches – Callirhoé
• George Frideric Handel
• *Il Pastor Fido
• *Teseo, HWV 9
• John Hughes (1677–1720) and Johann Ernst Galliard – Calypso and Telemachus
• Antonio Lotti – ''Porsenna''

Births

• January
• *David Owen, harpist
• *Cecilia Young, soprano, wife of Thomas Arne
• January 17 – John Stanley, composer and organist
• January 24 – Frederick II of Prussia, enthusiastic amateur musician and composer
• January 26 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer and head of a musical dynasty
• June 28 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, polymath
• July – John Hebden, musician and composer
• date unknown
• *Marimutthu Pillai, Carnatic music composer
• *John Christopher Smith, composer
• *Sophia Schröder, vocalist at the Kungliga Hovkapellet
• probable – Kane O'Hara, playwright and musician

Deaths

• April – Lambert Chaumont, organist and composer
• April 29 – Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles, composer
• August 7 – Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, organist at Halle
• August 26 – Sebastian Anton Scherer, composer
• September 30 – Johann Michael Zächer, composer
• November 6 – Johann Bernhard Staudt, composer
• date unknown
• *Buhurizade Mustafa Itri, composer and performer of Turkish classical music
• *Juan de Araujo, Spanish composer active in South and Central America
• *Carlo Alessandro Guidi, poet and songwriter
• probable – Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, violinist, composer and singer