1801 in music

Events

• January 12 – Domenico Cimarosa is buried at Chiesa di Sant’Angelo, Venice, with a requiem mass performed by local musicians.
• March 28 – Ludwig van Beethoven's ballet The Creatures of Prometheus premières in Vienna's Burgtheater.
• April 12 – Théâtre Feydeau in Paris closes down as a result of its director's other commitments.
• April 21 – The Teatro Nuovo in Trieste is inaugurated with a performance of Johann Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.
• April 24 – Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons is premièred as Die Jahreszeiten in Vienna for its aristocratic patrons at the Palais Schwarzenberg; it has its public première on May 19 at the Redoutensaal.
• December 27 – Nineteen-year-old Niccolò Paganini becomes first violin of Lucca's national orchestra.
• Publication of Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte by Muzio Clementi in London.
• Probable publication of A Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations Adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin, or Flute by William Wright in Newcastle upon Tyne with contributions by John Peacock (piper).

Published popular music

• "'Twas in the Solemn Midnight Hour", composed and sung by Mrs Bland

Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Violin Sonata No. 4, Op. 23
• *Violin Sonata No. 5, Op. 24
• *Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26
• *Piano Sonata No. 13 & No. 14 (Moonlight), Op. 27
• *Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 28
• *String Quintet, Op. 29
• *The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43
• Johann Baptist Cramer – Piano Sonatas, Op. 25
• Jan Ladislav Dussek
• *Two Piano Sonatas C.184-5
• *Piano Concerto, Op. 49
• John Field – Three Piano Sonatas Op. 1
• Joseph Haydn
• *Mass in B-flat major, Hob.XXII:13
• *The Spirit's Song, Hob.XXVIa:41
• *The Seasons
• Franz Krommer – 3 String Quartets, Op. 19
• John Marsh – Symphony no. 30 in E minor
• Pavel Vranický – Ballet Das Urteil des Paris
• Johann Baptist Wanhal – Clarinet Sonata in C major
• Joseph Woelfl – Duet for Cello and Piano, Op. 31
• Anton Wranitzky – 3 String Quintets, Op. 8
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – 12 Lieder am Clavier zu singen, Z.122

Opera

• Domenico Cimarosa – Artemisia
• Simon Mayr – Ginevra di Scozia
• Étienne Méhul – L'irato
• Rodolphe Kreutzer – Astyanax
• Marcos Portugal – La morte di Semiramide
• Johan Rudolf Zumsteeg – ''Das Pfauenfest''

Methods and theory writings

• Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen – Anleitung zum Harfenspiel
• André Ernest Modeste Grétry – Méthode simple pour apprendre à préluder
• Johann Christian Kittel – Der angehende praktische Organist
• Giovanni Punto – Étude ou Exercice Journalier
• Karl Zelter – ''Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch''

Births

• January 11 – John Lodge Ellerton, composer
• January 29 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, composer
• February 1 – Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, Swedish Composer
• February 21 – Jan Kalivoda, composer
• February 22 – William Barnes, lyricist and writer
• March 11 – Frédéric Bérat, composer and songwriter
• March 19 – Salvatore Cammarano, Italian librettist
• March 26 – Sophie Daguin, ballerina and choreographer
• April 12 – Joseph Lanner, composer
• June 20 – Gustavo Carulli, composer
• June 25 – Antonio D'Antoni, composer and conductor
• August 1 – Karl Johann Philipp Spitta, librettist and poet
• September 13 – Stefan Witwicki, lyricist and poet
• October 17 – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer
• October 23 – Albert Lortzing, composer
• November 3 – Vincenzo Bellini, composer
• November 27 – Aleksandr Varlamov, Russian composer

Deaths

• January 11 – Domenico Cimarosa, composer, 51
• March 2 – Charles-Albert Demoustier, lyricist and writer
• March 14 – Christian Friedrich Penzel, composer, 63
• March 21 – Andrea Luchesi, composer, 59
• March 25 – Friedrich von Hardenberg, librettist and poet
• May 13 – Bartholomeus Ruloffs, Dutch conductor and composer, 59
• May 14 – Johann Ernst Altenburg, composer, organist and trumpeter, 66
• August 31 – Nicola Sala, composer and music theorist, 88
• October 23 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann, conductor and composer, 60
• November – Thomas Augustine Geary, Irish composer
• November 9 – Carl Stamitz, composer, 56
• December 10 – Jonathan Battishill, composer of church music, 63