1741 in music

Events

• October 2 – The Bull's Head Musical Society opens a Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, Ireland.
• August 22-September 14 – George Frideric Handel composes his oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens, completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on September 6.
• November 18 – George Frideric Handel arrives in Dublin to give a series of concerts having tried out the Messiah privately en route in Chester.
• November 25 – Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin, the first female court musician at the French court, sells her official post to Bernard de Bury.
• Johann Friedrich Agricola arrives in Berlin to study musical composition under Johann Joachim Quantz.
• Antonio Vivaldi leaves Venice for Vienna, but dies shortly after his arrival.
• 19-year-old Jiří Antonín Benda is given the post of second violinist at the Berlin court of King Frederick II of Prussia.
• William Hogarth produces an engraving entitled The Enraged Musician.

  Classical music

• Girolamo Abos – Magnificat à quarto concertato con strum.
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
• *Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.411
• *Symphony in G major, H.648
• Johann Sebastian Bach – Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
• Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 91
• Michel Corrette – Nouveau Livre de noëls
• Jean-Baptiste Dupuits – 6 Sonatas for Vielle and Harpsichord, Op. 3
• Willem de Fesch – 8 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 10
• Baldassare Galuppi – Confitebor tibi Domine in C major, B.II.2
• Christoph Graupner
• *Trio Sonata in E major, GWV 208
• *Flute Sonata in G major, GWV 708
• George Frideric Handel
• *Messiah composed.
• *Quel fior che all'alba ride, HWV 192
• *Overture in D major, HWV 424
• Johann Adolph Hasse – 12 Flute Concertos, Op. 3
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Pièces de Clavecin
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts
• Georg Philipp Telemann – 24 Odes, TWV 25:86-109

  Opera

• Tomaso Albinoni – Artamene
• Andrea Bernasconi – Demofoonte
• Baldassare Galuppi – Penelope
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Artaserse
• Karl Heinrich Graun – Rodelinda regina de' Longobardi, GraunWV B:I:6
• George Frideric Handel – Deidamia, HWV 42
• Johann Adolph Hasse – Numa Pompilio
• Niccolò Jommelli – Semiramide riconosciuta
• Giovanni Battista Lampugnani – Arsace

  Publications

• Johann Sebastian Bach – Clavier-Übung IV, now known as the Goldberg Variations.
• The Cocquiel Manuscript, B-Br Ms II 3326 Mus, containing sacred music by various composers

  Methods and theory writings

• Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre le violoncelle, Op. 24
• Antoine Terrasson – Historique sur la vielle
• Carlo Tessarini – Gramatica di musica

  Births

• February 8 – André Grétry, composer
• February 9
• *Joseph Corfe
• *Henri-Joseph Rigel, composer
• April 17 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann
• May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, composer
• July 17 – Suzette Defoye, opera singer and ballerina
• July 27 – François-Hippolyte Barthélémon, violinist and composer
• August 31 – Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, composer
• September 11 – Johann Jakob Engel
• September 25 – Wenzel Pichl, singer, violinist and composer
• November 27 – Jean-Pierre Duport
• date unknown
• *Franz Xaver Hammer, gambist, cellist and composer
• *Giacomo Rust
• *Anna Brita Wendelius, singer and member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music.

  Deaths

• January 5 – Ann Turner Robinson, English soprano
• February 13 – Johann Fux, composer and theorist
• March 17 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
• June 21 – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer
• July 28 – Antonio Vivaldi, composer
• August – David Owen, Welsh harpist
• August 24 – Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, French operatic baritone
• September 3 – Carlo Francesco Cesarini
• September 7 – Henri Desmarets, French composer of sacred music
• probable – Francesco Scarlatti, composer