1785 in music

Events

• January 1 – Giovanni Paisiello officially leaves his employment at the court of Catherine the Great in Russia, having returned to Italy some months earlier.
• January 12 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail is produced by impresario Pasquale Bondini's company in Dresden.
• January 15 – The first performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's six string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn is given in Mozart's own home.
• January 21 – Soprano Nancy Storace, who was about to give birth, was replaced as Rosina in a Vienna production of Giovanni Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia by Luisa Laschi, to great acclaim.
• February 7 – Leopold Mozart leaves Munich for Vienna, with a pupil, Heinrich Marchand, in tow.
• February 26 – Polish violinist Feliks Janiewicz makes what was probably his debut as a soloist in a concert at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
• March 7 – King Ferdinand I of Naples awards a lifetime annual salary of 1,200 ducats to Giovanni Paisiello, on the understanding that the latter writes one new opera every year.
• March 28 – Domenico Cimarosa becomes second organist at the Chapel Royal of Naples.
• September 19 – Amélie-Julie Candeille makes her Comédie-Française début as a singer.
• October 13 – The Lord Chamberlain, James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, refuses to grant a licence to Giovanni Gallini for his Italian Opera House in London, unless he appoints a Mr. Crawford as deputy manager.
• October 26 – Joseph Haydn receives a visit from Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda, to whom he gives a guided tour of Schloss Esterházy.
• November 22 – The Hermitage Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia, is officially opened.
• Composer John Antes is appointed warder of the Fulneck Moravian Settlement in England
• Composer Supply Belcher settles in Maine.
• Opera composer relocates to London from his native Italy.
• Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany appoints Filippo Maria Gherardeschi organist and maestro di cappella at the Chiesa Conventuale dei Cavalieri di S Stefano at Pisa.
• Violinist Regina Strinasacchi marries Johann Conrad Schlick, cellist & Konzertmeister of the Gotha ducal band.

Bands formed

• Band of the Coldstream Guards

Published popular music

• "Cara sposa", music by Johann Christian Bach from the cantata Rinaldo ed Armide
• "Song of the Page", music by William Shield from Follies of a Day, or The Marriage of Figaro
• "Black-eyed Susan", by Robert Broderip

Classical music

• Carl Friedrich Abel – 4 Trio Sonatas, WK 98–101
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – 2 Sonaten, 2 Fantasien und 2 Rondos für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.59
• Johann Christian Bach
• *6 Violin Sonatas, Op.10
• *2 Symphonies, Op. 18
• Ludwig van Beethoven – Three quartets for harpsichord, violin, viola, and cello, in E major, D major, and C major, WoO 36
• William Billings – "I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me, We Will Go Into The House Of Ye Lord"
• Luigi Boccherini – Cello Concerto No. 10 in D major, G.483
• William Boyce, Ten Voluntaries
• Giuseppe Maria Cambini
• *6 Flute Quartets, T.145–150
• *6 Trios for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon, Op. 45
• Muzio Clementi – Six piano sonatas, Op. 13
• Francois Devienne – Flute Concerto No.3 in G major
• Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Six Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses
• Anton Eberl – Symphony in C major
• Giuseppe Giordani – Caro Mio Ben
• Joseph Haydn
• *Symphony 83 in G minor "La poule"
• *Symphony 85 in B-flat "La Reine"
• *Symphony 87 in A major, Hob.I:87
• *Overture in D major, Hob.Ia:4
• *12 Minuets, Hob.IX:8
• *Piano Trios, Op.27
• Franz Anton Hoffmeister
• *Double Bass Concerto No.1 in E-flat major
• *Keyboard Sonata in A major, WeiH 37
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *Piano Concertos 20 in D minor and 21 in C major
• *String Quartet No.18 in A major, K.464
• *String Quartet in C, "Dissonance"
• *Lied zur Gesellenreise, K. 468
• *Davidde penitente, K. 469
• *Fantasia in C minor, K. 475
• *Piano Quartet No. 1, K. 478
• Giovanni Paisiello – Il ritorno di Perseo, R.2.6
• Ignaz Pleyel
• *String Quartet
• *Symphony in D major, B.126
• Joseph Bologne de Saint Georges – 6 String Quartets, Op. 14
• Johann Schenk – Die Weinlese
• John Stanley – "Delusive is the poet's dream"
• – 12 Organ Sonatas, Op. 1
• Friedrich Witt – Symphony in A major
• Ernst Wilhelm Wolf – 3 String Quartets, Op. 3
• Maria Carolina Wolf – ''Glänzender sinket die Sonne''

Opera

• – Giasone e Medea
• Marcello Bernardini – Le donne bisbetiche, o sia L'antiquario fanatico, Teatro Pace, Rome.
• Pierre-Joseph Candeille – Pizarre, ou La conquête de Pérou, Opéra, Paris
• Luigi Cherubini – La finta principessa, King's Theatre, London
• Domenico Cimarosa – La donna sempre al suo peggior s'appiglia
• Prosper-Didier Deshayes – Le Faux serment
• Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Der Hufschmied, Breslau
• Robert Jephson – Campaign, or Love in the East Indies, Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London
• Thomas Linley
• *Hurly-Burly, or The Fairy of the Well, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
• *Strangers at Home, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
• *Armida abbandonata, Teatro della Pergola, Florence
• *L'infanta supposta, Teatro Ducale, Modena
• Giovanni Paisiello – La grotta di Trofonio, R.1.69
• Ignaz Pleyel – Ifigenia in Aulide
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Artemisia
• Antonio Salieri – La Grotta di Trofonio
• Giuseppe Sarti – I finti eredi
• William Shield
• *The Nunnery, Covent Garden, London
• *The Choleric Fathers, Covent Garden, London
• *Omai, or A Trip Round the World, Covent Garden, London
• Stephen Storace – Gli sposi malcontenti, Burgtheater, Vienna

Births

• February 2 – Isabella Colbran, coloratura soprano and composer
• March 3
• *, composer
• *Giovanni Ricordi, violinist and opera publisher
• March 6 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer
• March 19 – Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer
• April 4 – Bettina Brentano, composer and writer
• April 19 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, composer
• August 18 – Friedrich Wieck, piano teacher, father of Clara Schumann
• September 5 – Thomas Adams, organist and composer
• September 11 – Alpheus Babcock, American piano maker
• November 2 – Friedrich Kalkbrenner, pianist and composer date unknown
• *, German-born composer and cellist
• * Zofia Dmuszewska, Polish actor and opera singer

Deaths

• January 3 – Baldassare Galuppi, composer
• April 26 – Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff, composer and noble
• May 15 – Karel Blažej Kopřiva, organist and composer
• June 2 – Gottfried August Homilius, organist, cantor and composer
• June 22 – Matthias Vanden Gheyn, composer
• August 31 – Pietro Chiari, librettist
• November 19 – Bernard de Bury, composer
• December 8 – Antonio Maria Mazzoni, composer
• December 29 – Johann Heinrich Rolle, composer
• date unknown
• *Giovanni Battista Gervasio, composer and musician
• *Antoine Mahaut, composer and flautist