1788 in music

Events

• January 9 – The elderly Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach reviews Johann Nikolaus Forkel's book Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik in the Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent.
• January 22 – Composer Ignaz Pleyel marries Franziska Gabrielle Ignatia Lefebvre, daughter of a tapestry maker.
• January 26 – Australia Day: leads the First Fleet into landing at Sydney Cove to begin the settlement of Australia; it carries Surgeon George Worgan's London-made square piano which will remain in the country and be donated to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts collection in 2016.
• February 6 – The Kärntnertortheater in Vienna closes, after the German Opera Company disbands.
• February 12 – Antonio Salieri is appointed Imperial Royal Kapellmeister by Emperor Joseph II of Austria, in succession to Giuseppe Bonno, who is forcibly retired.
• March 6 – Domenico Cimarosa, recently invited to St Petersburg by the Empress Catherine II of Russia, premières his La felicità inaspetata, which fails to impress his new patron.
• June 25 – Publication of three string quintets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is postponed for a year because of a lack of take-up of subscriptions.
• July 17 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf is officially dismissed from his post as Amtshauptmann of Freiwaldau, but actually continues in the position for another seven years.
• November 25 – Three weeks before his death, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach writes his last known letter, to Johann Jacob Heinrich Westphal.

Opera

• Giuseppe Cambini – Le bon pére
• Thomas Carter – The Constant Maid, or Poll of Plympton
• Luigi Cherubini – Ifigenia in Aulide
• Domenico Cimarosa
• *La felicità inaspettata
• *La vergine del sole
• Franz Danzi – Die Mitternachtsstunde
• Giovanni Paisiello
• *L'Amor Contrastato
• *Fedra, premiered Jan. 1 in Naples
• Antonio Sacchini – Arvire et Évélina, premiered April 29.
• Antonio Salieri
• *Axur, Re d'Ormus
• *Il Talismano
• Joseph Weigl – ''Il pazzo per forza''

Classical music

• William Billings – The Singing Master’s Assistant
• Henry Bishop – Six New Minuets and Twelve Country Dances
• Domenico Cimarosa – Atene edificata
• Muzio Clementi
• *3 Piano Trios, Op.21
• *3 Piano Trios, Op.22
• *Keyboard sonata op.24/1
• Michel Corrette – Messe pour le tems de Noël
• Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – 6 String Quartets
• Jan Ladislav Dussek
• *3 Sonatas for Keyboard with Violin, Op.5
• *Three piano sonatas C.41–43
• Joseph-Francois Garnier – Simphonie Concertante for 2 Oboes
• Joseph Haydn
• *8 Nocturnes, Hob.II:25–32
• *String Quartet in C major, Hob.III:57
• *String Quartet in G major, Hob.III:58
• *String Quartet in E major, Hob.III:59
• *String Quartet in A major, Hob.III:60
• *String Quartet in F minor, Hob.III:61
• *String Quartet in B-flat major, Hob.III:62
• *Baryton Trio in A major, Hob.XI:6
• *Baryton Trio in A major, Hob.XI:8
• *Symphony No.90 in C major, Hob.I:90
• *Symphony No.91 in E-flat major, Hob.I:91
• Michael Haydn
• *Die Ährenleserin
• *Symphony No.37 in D major, MH 476
• Pelham Humfrey – O Lord, My God
• Frantisek Kotzwara – The Battle of Prague
• Leopold Kozeluch – Piano Sonata, Op.26 No.3
• Anton Kraft – 3 Cello Sonatas, Op. 1
• Rodolphe Kreutzer – Violin Concerto No.6 in E minor
• Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz – 6 Harp Sonatas, Opp. 13–14
• Vicente Martín y Soler – 12 Canzonette Italiane
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *6 German Dances, K.536
• *Ein deutsches Kriegslied, K.539
• *Adagio in B minor, K.540
• *Un bacio di mano, K.541
• *Piano Trio in E major, K.542
• *Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K.543
• *Piano Trio in C major, K.548
• *Più non si trovano, K.549
• *Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
• *Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551, "Jupiter"
• *Canon for 3 Voices in A major, K.562
• *Divertimento in E-flat major, K.563
• *Piano Trio in G major, K.564
• *6 German Dances, K.567
• *12 Minuets, K.568
• Giovanni Paisiello – Duet for two violins
• Ignaz Pleyel
• *Violin Concerto in D major, B.103A
• *3 Quintets, B.280–282
• *6 Keyboard Trios, B.431–436
• Alexander Reinagle – Federal March
• Giuseppe Sarti – 3 Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Op. 4
• Giovanni Battista Viotti
• *Violin Concerto No.13 in A major
• *Violin Concerto No.14 in A minor
• *6 Violin Sonatas, W 5.1–6

Methods and theory writings

• Johann Nikolaus Forkel – Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik
• Ferdinand Kauer – Kurzgefaßte Anweisung das Violoncell zu spielen
• Vincenzo Manfredini – Difesa della musica moderna e de' suoi celebri esecutori
• Ernst Wilhelm Wolf – ''Musikalischer Unterricht''

Births

• January 5 – Caspar Ett, composer and musician
• January 8
• *Erzherzog Rudolph, composer and archduke
• *Duke Eugen of Württemberg, composer and general
• January 22 – George Gordon Byron, lyricist and poet
• January 31 – Felice Romani, librettist and writer
• February 10 – Johann Peter Pixis, composer
• March 10 – Joseph von Eichendorff, lyricist and poet
• May 16 – Friedrich Rückert, librettist and poet
• August 20 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer
• August 26 – Aloys Schmitt, composer
• September 5 – George Macfarren, lyricist
• September 28 – Karl Christian Philipp Reichel composer
• October 11 – Simon Sechter, composer
• October 20 – Philip Knapton, composer
• November 6 – Giuseppe Donizetti, composer
• November 11 – Michał Wielhorski, Russian composer
• December 18 – Camille Pleyel, musician
• December 21 – Charles Chaulieu Sr., composer
• December 26 – Carl Anton Philipp Braun, composer
• date unknown
• *Brita Catharina Lidbeck, Swedish concert singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
• *John David Loder, composer and violinist

Deaths

• January 15 – Gaetano Latilla, composer
• March 2 – Salomon Gessner, lyricist and poet
• March 29 – Charles Wesley, hymn-writer
• April 12
• *Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer
• *Carl Joseph Toeschi, composer
• April 15 – Giuseppe Bonno, composer
• May 17 – Dorothea Biehl, librettist
• June 28 – Johann Christoph Vogel, composer
• July 14 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, composer
• November 2 – Johann Samuel Schröter, German composer
• December 14 – Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, composer
• December 12 – Joseph Gibbs, composer