1805 in music

Events

• April 7 – Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, has its public premiere at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna under his baton, marking the beginning of his middle period.
• November 20 – Beethoven's only opera Fidelio in its original form is premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
• Louis Spohr is appointed musical director to the court of Gotha.
• Niccolò Paganini begins touring Europe.

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Piano Concerto No.4, Op. 58
• *Leonora Overture No.2, Op. 72a
• *Erlkönig, WoO 131
• ETA Hoffmann – Piano Sonatas
• Franz Krommer – Concerto for Oboe in F Major, Op. 52
• Joseph Wölfl
• *Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 25
• *Three Piano Sonatas, Op. 33

  Opera

• Michele Carafa – Il Fantasma
• Luigi Cherubini – Faniska
• James Hook – The Soldier's Return

  Births

• January 7 – Philip Klitz, composer
• February 22 – Robert Reinick, lyricist and artist
• March 5 – Théodore Labarre, harpist and composer
• March 17 – Manuel García, singer and music teacher
• May 14 – Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, composer
• July 8 – Luigi Ricci, opera composer
• July 27 – Luigi Felice Rossi, composer and musicologist
• October 28 – John Thomson, composer
• November 1 – Alessandro Nini, composer
• November 14 – Fanny Mendelssohn, pianist and composer

  Deaths

• January 23 – Wenzel Pichl, composer
• February 4 – Johann George Tromlitz, flautist
• April – Emerico Lobo de Mesquita, organist, conductor, composer and music teacher
• April 28 – Peter Pelham, harpsichordist, organist and composer
• May 9 – Friedrich Schiller, librettist and poet
• May 10 – Johann Evangelist Haydn, tenor, brother of Joseph Haydn and Michael Haydn
• May 28 – Luigi Boccherini, composer
• August – Ann Griffiths, hymn-writer
• November – Hamoir, dancer and theatre director
• December 18 – Gennaro Astarita, opera composer