1759 in music

Events

• Johann Friedrich Agricola succeeds Carl Heinrich Graun as director of Frederick the Great's royal opera.
• Castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti makes his debut at the Perugia carnival, in a female role.
• Tommaso Traetta becomes court composer at Parma.

  Popular music

• None listed

  Opera

• Johann Ernst Eberlin – Demofoonte
• Baldassare Galuppi – La clemenza di Tito
• Florian Leopold Gassmann – Gli uccellatori
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – L'Arbre enchantée; Cythère Assiégée
• François Danican Philidor – Blaise le savetier
• Tommaso Traetta – Ippolito ed Aricia

  Classical music

• Carl Friedrich Abel – 6 Symphonies, Op. 1
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Viola da Gamba Sonata in G minor, H.510
• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Pieces for Musical Clock
• Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Pièces de clavecin
• William Boyce – "Heart of Oak"
• François Joseph Gossec – Sei sinfonie a più stromenti, op.4
• Joseph Haydn
• *Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:G1
• *Symphony no 1 in D Major Hob.I:1
• Leopold Mozart
• *Der Morgen und der Abend
• *Nannerl's Music Book
• Johan Helmich Roman – Concerto Grosso, BeRI 45
• Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Messias, TWV 6:4

  Methods and music theory

• Pietro Gianotti – Le guide du compositeur
• Cornforth Gilson – Lessons on the Practice of Singing
• Antoine Mahaut – Nouvelle Méthode pour jouer la Flûte Traversière
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten und neuen Musik
• Robert Smith – Harmonics, or The Philosophy of Musical Sounds

  Births

• January 19 – Karl Alexander Herklots, librettist and author
• January 24 – Francesco Saverio Salfi, librettist and writer
• January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist
• January 31 – François Devienne, composer
• February 1 – Karl Friedrich Hensler, librettist and author
• February 11 – Ernst von Gemmingen, composer and diplomat
• February 27 – Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab, music editor and composer
• April 18 – Jacques Widerkehr, Alsatian composer and cellist
• 15 May – Maria Theresia von Paradis, musician and composer
• May 22 – Gervais-François Couperin, French composer
• June 19 – Helen Maria Williams, librettist and writer
• 19 July – Marianna Auenbrugger, composer
• July 29 – Antonio Simone Sografi, librettist and playwright
• November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, librettist and poet
• November 27 – Franz Krommer, composer
• December 25 – John Beckwith, composer and musician
• unknown date
• *Franz Gleissner, German composer
• *William Matthews of Nottingham, composer

  Deaths

• March 19 – Sebastian Bodinus, German composer
• April 14 – George Frideric Handel, composer
• June 12 – William Collins, librettist and poet
• June 22 – Louis de Cahusac, librettist
• July 25 – Johann Christoph Altnickol, organist, singer and composer
• August 8 – Carl Heinrich Graun, composer
• August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, librettist and poet
• September 4 – Girolamo Chiti, composer
• October 18 – Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, French composer
• date unknown – Gustavus Waltz, singer