1801 in music

Events

• January 12 – Domenico Cimarosa is buried at Chiesa di Sant’Angelo, Venice, with a requiem mass performed by local musicians.
• March 28 – Ludwig van Beethoven's ballet The Creatures of Prometheus premières in Vienna's Burgtheater.
• April 12 – Théâtre Feydeau in Paris closes down as a result of its director's other commitments.
• April 21 – The Teatro Nuovo in Trieste is inaugurated with a performance of Johann Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.
• April 24 – Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons is premièred as Die Jahreszeiten in Vienna for its aristocratic patrons at the Palais Schwarzenberg; it has its public première on May 19 at the Redoutensaal.
• December 27 – Nineteen-year-old Niccolò Paganini becomes first violin of Lucca's national orchestra.
• Publication of Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte by Muzio Clementi in London.
• Probable publication of A Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations Adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin, or Flute by William Wright in Newcastle upon Tyne with contributions by John Peacock.

  Published popular music

• "'Twas in the Solemn Midnight Hour", composed and sung by Mrs Bland

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Violin Sonata No. 4, Op. 23
• *Violin Sonata No. 5, Op. 24
• *Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26
• *Piano Sonata No. 13 & No. 14, Op. 27
• *Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 28
• *String Quintet, Op. 29
• *The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43
• Johann Baptist Cramer – Piano Sonatas, Op. 25
• Jan Ladislav Dussek
• *Two Piano Sonatas C.184-5
• *Piano Concerto, Op. 49
• John Field – Three Piano Sonatas Op. 1
• Franz Joseph Haydn
• *Mass in B-flat major, Hob.XXII:13
• *The Spirit's Song, Hob.XXVIa:41
• Franz Krommer – 3 String Quartets, Op. 19
• John Marsh – Symphony no. 30 in E minor
• Johann Baptist Vanhal – Clarinet Sonata in C major
• Pavel Vranický – Ballet Das Urteil des Paris
• Joseph Woelfl – Duet for Cello and Piano, Op. 31
• Anton Wranitzky – 3 String Quintets, Op. 8
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – 12 Lieder am Clavier zu singen, Z.122

  Opera

• Domenico Cimarosa – Artemisia
• Simon Mayr – Ginevra di Scozia
• Étienne Méhul – L'irato
• Rodolphe Kreutzer – Astyanax
• Marcos Portugal – La morte di Semiramide
• Johan Rudolf Zumsteeg – Das Pfauenfest

  Methods and theory writings

• Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen – Anleitung zum Harfenspiel
• André Ernest Modeste Grétry – Méthode simple pour apprendre à préluder
• Johann Christian Kittel – Der angehende praktische Organist
• Giovanni Punto – Étude ou Exercice Journalier
• Karl Zelter – Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch

  Births

• January 11 – John Lodge Ellerton, composer
• January 29 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, composer
• February 1 – Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, Swedish Composer
• February 21 – Jan Kalivoda, composer
• February 22 – William Barnes, lyricist and writer
• March 11 – Frédéric Bérat, composer and songwriter
• March 19 – Salvatore Cammarano, Italian librettist
• March 26 – Sophie Daguin, ballerina and choreographer
• April 12 – Joseph Lanner, composer
• June 20 – Gustavo Carulli, composer
• June 25 – Antonio D'Antoni, composer and conductor
• August 1 – Karl Johann Philipp Spitta, librettist and poet
• September 13 – Stefan Witwicki, lyricist and poet
• October 17 – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer
• October 23 – Albert Lortzing, composer
• November 3 – Vincenzo Bellini, composer
• November 27 – Aleksandr Varlamov, Russian composer

  Deaths

• January 11 – Domenico Cimarosa, composer, 51
• March 2 – Charles-Albert Demoustier, lyricist and writer
• March 14 – Christian Friedrich Penzel, composer, 63
• March 21 – Andrea Luchesi, composer, 59
• March 25 – Friedrich von Hardenberg, librettist and poet
• May 13 – Bartholomeus Ruloffs, Dutch conductor and composer, 59
• May 14 – Johann Ernst Altenburg, composer, organist and trumpeter, 66
• August 31 – Nicola Sala, composer and music theorist, 88
• October 23 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann, conductor and composer, 60
• November – Thomas Augustine Geary, Irish composer
• November 9 – Carl Stamitz, composer, 56
• December 10 – Jonathan Battishill, composer of church music, 63