1802 in music

Events

• January 9 – The Harmonic Society of Philadelphia is founded, with native composer Andrew Law as its president.
• January 20 – Luigi Boccherini receives a pension from Joseph Bonaparte.
• February 15 – Muzio Clementi publishes the second volume of his Practical Harmony.
• March 19 – Composer François-Adrien Boieldieu marries dancer Clotilde Mafleuray.
• April 30 – Louis Spohr begins his violin studies under Franz Eck.
• May 5
• *Composer Giovanni Paisiello, recently arrived in Paris, meets his host, Napoleon, for the first time.
• *Composers Jan Ladislav Dussek and Louis Spohr are introduced by Herr Kiekhöver in Hamburg.
• July 20 – The chapel created by Napoleon in the Tuileries is officially opened, with Giovanni Paisiello as its musical director.
• August 15 – Luigi Cherubini, Étienne-Nicolas Méhul, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode and Nicolò Isouard go into business as publishers of their own music.
• October 6 – Ludwig van Beethoven writes to his brother Carl from Heiligenstadt, in despair over his increasing deafness.
• Simon Mayr becomes maestro di cappella at Bergamo Cathedral.

  Publications

• Charles-Simon Catel – Traité d’harmonie
• Frédéric Duvernoy – Méthod pour le Cor
• Johann Nikolaus Forkel – On Johann Sebastian Bach’s Life, Art, and Work: For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical Art
• John Gunn – An Essay Theoretical and Practical
• Christian Kalkbrenner – Histoire de la Musique
• Heinrich Christoph Koch – Musikalisches Lexikon
• Jean-Xavier Lefèvre – Méthode de clarinette
• Georg Joseph Vogler – Handbuch zur Harmonielehre

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Second Symphony
• *6 Ländler, WoO 15
• Matthieu Frédéric Blasius – Clarinet Concerto No. 1
• Giuseppe Maria Cambini – Wind Quintet Nos.1–3
• Muzio Clementi – 3 Piano Sonatas, Op. 40
• Jan Ladislav Dussek
• *Duo in F major, Op. 26
• *Piano Sonata No.17, Op. 43
• *Piano Sonatas Nos. 19–21, Op. 45
• *Piano Sonatas Nos. 22–23, Op. 47
• Emanuel Aloys Förster – 3 String Quartets, Op. 21
• Joseph Haydn – Harmoniemesse, his last major work
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Piano Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and bass, Op. 87
• Franz Krommer
• *Flute Concerto No.1, Op. 30
• *Concerto for 2 Clarinets in E-flat major, Op. 35
• Ignaz Pleyel – Symphonie concertante in F major, B.115
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Das Zauberschloss
• Anton Ferdinand Titz – 3 String Quartets
• Samuel Wesley – Symphony in B-flat
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – Sammlung kleiner Balladen und Lieder, Z.123

  Opera

• Charles-Simon Catel – Sémiramis
• Michael Kelly – Urania
• Etienne Nicolas Méhul – Le trésor supposé
• William Reeve – Family Quarrels
• Carl Maria Von Weber – Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn

  Births

• February 20 – Charles-Auguste de Bériot, composer and violinist
• February 26 – Victor Hugo, librettist and poet
• March 3 – Adolphe Nourrit, operatic tenor
• March 5 – James Turle, editor and organist
• May 31 – Cesare Pugni, Italian composer
• July 3 – Joseph Labitzky, composer and conductor
• July 12 – Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens, composer
• July 15 – John Barnett, English composer
• July 24 – Alexandre Dumas, librettist and writer
• July 27 – Ida Henriette da Fonseca, alto, composer
• August 13 – Nikolaus Lenau, lyricist and poet
• August 23 – Manuel Inocêncio Liberato dos Santos, musician and composer
• August 28 – Karl Joseph Simrock, librettist and poet
• September 19 – Lajos Kossuth, dedicatee and politician
• September 24 – Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, librettist and Lord Chief Justice
• October 7 – Bernhard Molique, composer
• October 10 – George Pope Morris, librettist and publisher
• date unknown
• *George Alexander Lee, singer and composer
• * Marion Dix Sullivan, American composer
• * José Zapiola, conductor and composer

  Deaths

• January 27 – Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, conductor and composer, 42
• April 10 – Charlotte Brent, operatic soprano, 66
• April 18 – Erasmus Darwin, lyricist and physician
• July 26 – Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux, painter and musician, 41
• July 28 – Giuseppe Sarti, composer, 72
• August 10 – Antonio Lolli, violinist and composer
• August 23 – Corona Schröter, singer, 51
• September 28 – Heinrich Harries, lyricist and pastor
• October 2 – Giuseppe Millico, castrato singer, composer and music teacher, 65
• October 22 – Samuel Arnold, composer and organist, 62