1738 in music

Events

• January – Antonio Vivaldi conducts a festival to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Schouwburg theater.
• 4 May – Foundation of the Imperial Ballet School at Saint Petersburg, with Jean-Baptiste Landé as its principal.
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great.

Classical music

• Johann Sebastian Bach
• *Kyrie–Gloria masses, BWV 233–236
• *Harpsichord Concerto No.3 in D major, BWV 1054
• Francesco Durante – Messa piccola di requiem in G
• George Frideric Handel – La bianca rosa, HWV 160c
• Leonardo Leo
• *Cello Concerto in A major, L.50
• *Cello Concerto in D minor, L.60
• Jan Dismas Zelenka – Miserere, ZWV 57

Opera

• Thomas Arne – Comus
• Antonio Bioni – Girita
• François Francoeur and François Rebel – Le Ballet de la paix
• George Frideric Handel
• *Faramondo
• *Saul
• *Serse
• Johann Adolph Hasse – Irene
• Giovanni Battista Pescetti – La Conquista del Vello D'Oro
• Nicola Porpora – Carlo il Calvo
• Giovanni Porta – Ifigenia in Aulide
• Francesco Maria Veracini – ''Rosalinda''

Publications

• Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – L'Automne, Op. 5, No. 3
• Josse Boutmy – Pièces de clavecin, Livre 1
• Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello – 12 Concertos, Op. 1
• Michele Corrette
• *L'école d'Orphée, Op. 18
• *Les délices de la solitude, Op. 20
• George Frideric Handel – 6 Organ Concertos, Op.4
• Alessandro Marcello – La cetra di Eterio Stinfalico, 6 concertos for 2 oboes or flutes, strings, and basso continuo
• Domenico Scarlatti
• * Essercizi per Gravicembalo, K.1-30
• * 42 Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, K.1-42
• Giuseppe Sammartini – 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. 2
• Georg Philipp Telemann
• *Fugues légères & petits jeux, TWV 30:21–26
• *18 Canons Mélodieux, TWV 40:118–123
• *6 Nouveaux quatuors en six suites: à une flûte traversiere, un violon, une basse de viole, où violoncel, et basse continuë. Paris: L'auteur, Vater, Boivin, et Le Clerc., TWV 43:D3, 43:a2, 43:G4, 43:h2, 43:A3, 43:e4
• Johann Gottfried Walther – Harmonisches Denck- und Danckmahl
• 6 Harpsichord Concertos and 4 Organ Fugues works by various and anonymous composers. Contains Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Fugue in F major F.36.

Methods and theory writings

• Johann Philipp Eisel – ''Musicus autodidaktos''

Births

• April 17 – Philip Hayes, composer
• May – Jonathan Battishill, composer
• June 3 – Pierre Vachon, composer
• August 11 – Anna Bon, composer
• August 14 – Leopold Hofmann, composer
• October 26 – Louis-Charles-Joseph Rey, composer and cellist,
• November 15 – William Herschel, astronomer and composer
• December 14 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, composer
• date unknown
• *Carlo Besozzi, oboist and composer
• *Thomas Ebdon, organist and composer

Deaths

• January 6 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer
• January 17 – Jean-François Dandrieu, harpsichordist, organist and composer
• March 25 – Turlough O'Carolan, harpist and composer
• July 20 – Tommaso Redi, composer
• August 23 – Baron Anders von Düben, director of the Royal Swedish Orchestra
• August 29 – Georg Reutter, organist and composer
• September 23 – Carlo Agostino Badia, opera composer
• December 22 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, composer
• date unknown – José de Torres, composer