1779 in music

Events

• February 16 – Composer William Boyce is buried in St Paul's Cathedral. The music at his funeral features the massed choirs of St Paul's itself, Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
• April – The London Magazine reports on the organ-playing of three-year-old prodigy William Crotch.
• December 26 – Teatro alla Scala in Milan opens its operatic carnival season with Josef Mysliveček's new opera Armida.
• The opera house at Eszterháza burns down.
• Mezzo-soprano Luigia Polzelli and her violinist husband Antonio arrive at the Esterházy court, where she quickly becomes the lover of Joseph Haydn.

  Opera

• Johann Christian Bach – Amadis de Gaule
• Domenico Cimarosa
• *L'infedeltà fedele
• *L'italiana in Londra
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Iphigénie en Tauride
• André Ernest Modeste Grétry – L'amant jaloux
• Joseph Haydn – L'isola disabitata
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zaide
• Giovanni Paisiello – Demetrio, R.1.59
• Antonio Salieri – Il Talismano

  Classical music

• Anna Amalia – Organ Trio in C major
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.55
• Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Sonates en Quatuor, Op. 3
• William Boyce – 10 Voluntaries for the Organ
• Muzio Clementi
• *6 Sonatas, Op. 2
• *3 Piano Duets and 3 Sonatas, Op. 3
• François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie Concertante du Ballet de Mirza, B.90
• Joseph Haydn
• *Symphony No. 70 in D major
• *Symphony No. 71 in B-flat major, Hob.I:71
• Michael Haydn – Symphony No.23 in D major, MH 287, P.43
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
• *Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos
• *Serenade in D major, "Posthorn" K.320
• *Church Sonata in C major, K.329/317a
• Johann Heinrich Rolle – Thirza und ihre Söhne

  Methods and theory writings

• Anton Bemitzrieder – Nouvel essai sur l'harmonie
• François Vincent Corbelin – Méthode de Harpe
• Franz Paul Rigler – Anleitung zum Klavier
• Francisco Inácio Solano – Novo tratado de musica metrica, e rythmica
• Francesco Antonio Vallotti – Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica

  Births

• January 8 – John White, composer
• January 15 – Jean Coralli, ballet producer and choreographer
• February 1 – Nikolaus von Krufft, Austrian composer
• February 5 – François van Campenhout, singer and composer
• February 22 – Joachim Nicolas Eggert, composer
• February 23 – Johann Caspar Aiblinger, composer
• March 1 – Jacob Gottfried Weber, composer
• March 13 – Oliver Shaw, composer
• April 11 – Louise Reichardt, German composer
• April 21 – William Knyvett, composer
• May 28 – Thomas Moore, poet and lyricist
• August 1 – Francis Scott Key, songwriter
• September 10 – Louis Alexandre Piccinni
• October 15 – Johan Olof Wallin, songwriting bishop

  Deaths

• February 7 – William Boyce, composer
• April 6 – Tommaso Traetta, composer
• April 7 – Martha Ray, singer
• December 5 – Hermann Anton Gelinek, organist and violinist
• December 28 – Gennaro Manna, composer
• date unknown – Josse Boutmy, organist and harpsichordist