1786 in music

Events

• January 21 – Luigi Boccherini becomes an official composer to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.
• February 7 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, presents a festival at Schönbrunn Palace, at which new compositions by both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri are performed.
• April 28 – Leopold Mozart writes to his daughter, Maria Anna Mozart, predicting failure for his son's latest opera, The Marriage of Figaro.
• October 18 – Leopold Mozart is given a blood test on the same day that his daughter-in-law Constanze Mozart gives birth to her third child, Johann Thomas Leopold; the baby dies a month later, Leopold the following year.
• November 7 – America's oldest singing society is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.
• November 24 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf unsuccessfully seeks employment with the newly enthroned King Frederick William II of Prussia.
• In Britain, William Parsons succeeds John Stanley as Master of the King's Musick.
• In Benares, Jiwan Shah and Francis Fowke conduct an experiment comparing the pitch of the harpsichord with that of a traditional Indian instrument.
• Georg Joseph Vogler is appointed Kapellmeister to King Gustav III of Sweden.

  Publications

• Johann Wilhelm Hässler – 6 Leichte Sonaten, Theil 1
• Leopold Kozeluch – Three Piano Sonatas, Op. 20
• Maria Theresia von Paradis – Zwölf Lieder auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt, composed on tour over the previous two years
• Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart – Musicalische Rhapsodien

  Classical music

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Funeral music for A. Schulte
• Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach – Ino, BR G 48
• Cecilia Maria Barthélemon
• *Op. 1: Three Sonatas for the Piano-Forte, or Harpsichord, the Second with an Accompaniment for the Violin
• *6 English and Italian Songs, Op.2
• Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
• *Der Apotheker und der Doktor
• *Giobbe
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 82 in C
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *Piano Concerto No. 23 in A
• *Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor
• * Piano Trio No 2
• *Symphony No. 38 in D "Prague"
• Corona Schröter – 25 Lieder

  Opera

• Gioacchino Albertini – Virginia
• Bonifazio Asioli – Le nozze in villa
• Dmitri Stepanovich Bortniansky – Le Faucon
• Nicolas Dalayrac – Nina
• François-Joseph Gossec – Rosine, ou L’épouse abandonnée
• André Grétry – Amphitryon
• Lucille Grétry – Le mariage d’Antonio
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• *Der Schauspieldirektor
• *Le nozze di Figaro .
• Antonio Salieri
• *Les Horaces
• *Prima la musica e poi le parole
• Giuseppe Sarti – Armida e Rinaldo''

  Published popular music

• First edition of Elias Mann's Worcester Collection

  Methods and theory writings

• Francesco Azopardi – Il musico prattico
• Henry Beck – Flute Book
• Antonio D. R. Borghese – L’art musical ramené à ses vrais principes
• João Ribeiro de Almeida Campos – Elementos de Musica
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Legende einiger Musikheiligen
• James Nares – A Concise and Easy Treatise on Singing, with a Set of English Duets for Beginners
• Joseph Riepel – Baßschlüssel
• Ignaz Schweigl – Grundlehre der Violin

  Births

• January 3 – Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider, composer
• June 21 – Charles Edward Horn, singer and composer
• September 11 – Friedrich Kuhlau, composer
• September 27 – José Mariano Elízaga, composer
• November 10 – Carl Eberwein, violinist and composer
• November 18
• *Carl Maria von Weber, composer
• *Sir Henry Bishop, Professor of Music at Oxford
• December 20 – Pietro Raimondi, composer
• date unknown
• *Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, composer
• *Elena Pucić-Sorkočević, composer

  Deaths

• January 4 – Moses Mendelssohn, philosopher and grandfather of composers Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn
• January 14 – Michael Arne, composer
• February 16 – Johann Georg Schürer, composer
• March 7 – Frantisek Benda, composer
• March 21 – Johann Gottlieb Preller, cantor and composer
• April 13 – Jan Tomáš Kuzník, composer and music teacher
• May 19 – John Stanley, composer
• June 2 – Giovanni Battista Lampugnani, composer
• July – Sophia Baddeley, actress and singer
• July 29 – Franz Asplmayr, composer
• August 17 – King Frederick II of Prussia, amateur composer
• September 6 – Karl von Ordóñez, composer
• September 18 – Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, musical instrument maker
• October 6 – Antonio Sacchini, composer