1779 in music

Events

• February 16 – Composer William Boyce is buried in St Paul's Cathedral. The music at his funeral features the massed choirs of St Paul's itself, Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
• March 7 – Griffith Jones, aged about 21, is recommended for membership of the Royal Society of Musicians.
• April – The London Magazine reports on the organ-playing of three-year-old prodigy William Crotch.
• December 26 – Teatro alla Scala in Milan opens its operatic carnival season with Josef Mysliveček's new opera Armida.
• The opera house at Eszterháza burns down.
• Mezzo-soprano Luigia Polzelli and her violinist husband Antonio arrive at the Esterházy court, where she quickly becomes the lover of Joseph Haydn.

Opera

• Johann Christian Bach – Amadis de Gaule
• Domenico Cimarosa
• *L'infedeltà fedele
• *L'italiana in Londra
• *Il matrimonio per raggiro
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Iphigénie en Tauride
• André Ernest Modeste Grétry – L'amant jaloux
• Joseph Haydn – L'isola disabitata
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zaide
• Giovanni Paisiello – Demetrio, R.1.59
• Antonio Salieri – ''Il Talismano''

Classical music

• Anna Amalia – Organ Trio in C major
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
• *Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.55
• *Rondo in E major, Wq. 57, H.265
• *Rondo in F major, Wq. 57, H.266
• Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Sonates en Quatuor, Op. 3
• William Billings – Music in Miniature
• William Boyce – 10 Voluntaries for the Organ
• Muzio Clementi
• *6 Sonatas, Op. 2
• *3 Piano Duets and 3 Sonatas, Op. 3
• François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie Concertante du Ballet de Mirza, B.90
• Joseph Haydn
• *Symphony No. 70 in D major
• *Symphony No. 71 in B-flat major, Hob.I:71
• *Symphony No. 75 in D Major
• *Aria: "Quando la rosa"
• Michael Haydn – Symphony No.23 in D major, MH 287, P.43
• Johann Adam Hiller – "Lieder und Arien aus Sophiens Reise", compilation including pieces from Mozart.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *Kommet her, ihr frechen Sünder, K.146/317b
• *Mass in C major, K.317
• *Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318
• *Symphony No.33 in B-flat major, K.319
• *Serenade in D major, "Posthorn" K.320
• *Vesperae solennes de Dominica in C. K.341
• *Church Sonata in C major, K.329/317a
• *2 Marches, K.335/320a
• *Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K.364/320d
• *Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos, K.365/316a
• Johann Heinrich Rolle – Thirza und ihre Söhne
• Johann Adolph Hasse - Mass in E-flat major
• Joseph Bologne Saint-Georges – 2 Symphonies, Op.11
• Antonio Salieri – Organ Concerto in C major
• William Shrubsole – "Miles's Lane ", in The Gospel Magazine and Moral Miscellany, Vol.6.
• Maria Carolina Wolf – "Die Rose"
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – Viola Concerto in E-flat major

Methods and theory writings

• Joseph Amiot – Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois
• Anton Bemitzrieder – Nouvel essai sur l'harmonie
• François Vincent Corbelin – Méthode de Harpe
• Franz Paul Rigler – Anleitung zum Klavier
• Francisco Inácio Solano – Novo tratado de musica metrica, e rythmica
• Francesco Antonio Vallotti – ''Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica''

Births

• January 8 – John White, organist and composer
• January 15 – Jean Coralli, ballet producer and choreographer
• February 1 – Nikolaus von Krufft, Austrian composer
• February 2 – Georg Heinrich Lux, organist and composer
• February 5 – François van Campenhout, singer and composer
• February 17 – Wilhelm Friedrich Riem, composer
• February 22 – Joachim Nicolas Eggert, composer
• February 23 – Johann Caspar Aiblinger, composer
• February 28 – Henry Darondeau, composer
• March 1 – Jacob Gottfried Weber, composer
• March 13 – Oliver Shaw, composer
• April 11 – Louise Reichardt, German composer
• April 21 – William Knyvett, composer
• May 28 – Thomas Moore, poet and lyricist
• June 23 – Johann Baptist Schiedermayr, composer
• July 20 – Ignaz Schuster, bass and composer
• August 1 – Francis Scott Key, songwriter
• September 8 – Johann Philipp Samuel Schmidt, composer
• September 10 – Louis Alexandre Piccinni, composer
• October 15
• *August Ferdinand Häser, composer
• *Johan Olof Wallin, songwriting bishop
• November 14 – Adam Oehlenschläger poet and lyricist
• date unknown
• *Georges-Joseph-Laurent Lambert, composer

Deaths

• January 20 – David Garrick, librettist
• February 7 – William Boyce, composer, 69
• February 12 – Hinrich Philip Johnsen, composer
• April 6 – Tommaso Traetta, composer, 52
• April 7 – Martha Ray, singer, 32/33
• June 6 – Joseph Inchbald, actor and singer, 44
• November 27 – Josse Boutmy, organist and harpsichordist, 82
• December 5 – Hermann Anton Gelinek, organist and violinist, 70
• December 28 – Gennaro Manna, composer, 64
• December - Richard Morris, collector of folk songs, 76
• unknown date – Edward Jones, Welsh composer, 49/50