1812 in music

Events

• January 17 – Carl Maria von Weber leaves Leipzig for Gotha.
• February 11 – Carl Czerny gives the first Vienna performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto.
• February 18 – Carl Maria von Weber performs in Dresden but is not a success.
• February 20 – Weber and his friend, clarinettist Heinrich Baermann, stay overnight in Berlin with the family of Baermann's former teacher Joseph Beer.
• March 8 – Composer Georg Joseph Vogler and his pupil Jacob Beer, the future Meyerbeer, leave Darmstadt for Munich.
• May – The Royal Swedish Opera reopens after a 5-year gap.
• May 26 – Luigi Cherubini resigns from his position at the Académie Impériale de Musique.
• June 17 – Vogler and his pupil Beer are presented to the Queen of Bavaria at Nymphenburg.
• July 2 – Ludwig van Beethoven visits his patron Prince Kinsky, seeking an advance on his promised remuneration.
• July 26 – Fifteen-year-old Franz Schubert makes his last appearance as a chorister at the Imperial Chapel in Vienna.
• September 11 – Johann Nepomuk Hummel's ballet Sappho von Mitilene receives its première at Vienna.
• October 5 – Ludwig van Beethoven comes to Linz to try to stop his brother Johann's affair with Therese Obermayer.
• November 9 – Johann van Beethoven marries Therese Obermayer.
• December 31 – Giacomo Meyerbeer becomes the toast of Munich after performing at a concert for the benefit of wounded Bavarian soldiers.
• Date unknown – Irish composer John Field invents the Nocturne, redefining the form as a short, flowing piano composition written most often in compound duple meter. He writes his first three, out of eighteen, during this year.
• A performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast is given in the Spanish Riding School of the Hofburg in Vienna, leading to the founding of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde by Joseph Sonnleithner.

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *Symphony no. 7
• *Symphony no. 8
• *Violin Sonata No. 10
• *3 Equali, WoO 30
• *Allegretto, WoO 39
• *12 Irish Songs, WoO 154
• William Crotch – Palestine
• Jan Ladislav Dussek – Two Duos for piano and harp
• Mauro Giuliani
• *Studio per la Chitarra, Op. 1
• *Rondoletto, Op. 4
• *Grand Potpourri No.3, Op. 31
• *24 Etudes, Op. 48
• *Grand Potpourri for Flute and Guitar, Op. 53
• Karol Kurpinski – Bitwa pod Możajskiem, Op. 15
• Giovanni Paisiello – Mass in C
• Ferdinand Ries
• *Piano Concerto No.3, Op. 55
• *3 Airs russes variés, Op. 72
• Antonio Salieri – Kyrie in C
• James Sanderson – "Hail to the Chief"
• Franz Schubert
• *Overture in D major, D.12
• *Fugue in D minor, D.13
• *Der Geistertanz, D.15a
• *String Quartet No.1, D.18
• *Overture in D major, D.26
• *Piano Trio in B-flat major, D.28
• *Andante in C major, D. 29
• *Der Jüngling am Bache, D.30
• *String Quartet No. 2 in C major, D. 32
• *Serbate, o Dei custodi, D.35
• *String Quartet No.3, D.36
• *Die Advokaten, D.37
• *Klaglied
• Carl Maria von Weber
• *6 Favorit-Walzer der Kaiserin von Frankreich Marie Louise, J.143–148
• *Piano Sonata No.1 in C major, Op. 24

  Opera

• François-Adrien Boieldieu – Jean de Paris
• Giacomo Meyerbeer – Jephtas Gelübde
• Gioachino Rossini
• *Aureliano in Palmira
• *Ciro in Babilonia
• *Demetrio e Polibio
• *L'inganno felice.
• *L'occasione fa il ladro
• *La pietra del paragone
• *La scala di seta
• Franz Schubert – Der Spiegelritter

  Births

• January 8 – Vasily Botkin, translator and critic
• January 14 – Karl Graedener, composer
• January 21 – Eduard Tauwitz, composer
• February 6 – Berthold Damcke, German composer
• February 7 – Charles Dickens, writer and lyricist
• February 19 – Zygmunt Krasiński, lyricist and bard
• March 3 – Alexandre Dubuque, Russian composer
• March 11 – William Vincent Wallace, composer
• April 20 – Pauline Åhman, harpist
• April 27 – Friedrich von Flotow, composer
• May 4 – Amalia Redec, pianist and composer
• May 7 – Robert Browning, lyricist and poet
• May 12 – Edward Lear, lyricist and artist
• May 14 – Emilie Mayer, composer
• June 27 – John Pyke Hullah, composer and music teacher
• July 28 – Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, lyricist and poet
• August 12 – John Oxenford, librettist and dramatist
• October 1 – Johann Rufinatscha, composer, music theorist and teacher
• November 1 – Hermann von Gilm, lyricist and poet
• November 14 – Aleardo Aleardi, librettist and poet
• November 28 – Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, composer
• December 6 – Gustave Vaëz, librettist and composer
• December 28 – Julius Rietz, German cellist, conductor and composer

  Deaths

• February 9 – Franz Anton Hoffmeister, composer and music publisher
• March 20 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, pianist and composer
• March 27 – Joachim Albertini, composer
• May 21 – Joseph Wölfl, pianist and composer
• June 15 – Anton Stadler, clarinet and basset horn player
• July 17 – John Broadwood, piano manufacturer
• July 24 – Joseph Schuster, composer
• August 19 – Vincenzo Righini, composer, singer and kapellmeister
• September 21 – Emanuel Schikaneder, German impresario, actor, singer and librettist
• December – Michel-Joseph Gebauer, instrumentalist, bandmaster and composer
• December 13 – Marianne von Martinez, singer, pianist and composer
• date unknown
• *Isaac Bickerstaffe, Irish librettist
• *Luciano Francisco Comella, librettist and playwright
• *Christian Benjamin Uber, amateur musician and composer