1817 in music

Events

• Felix Mendelssohn begins studying composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter.
• Improved form of ophicleide invented by Jean Hilaire Asté in France.

  Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• *String Quintet
• *So oder So, WoO 148
• Alexandre-Pierre-François Boëly – 30 Caprices, Op. 2
• Ferdinando Carulli – 6 Duos for Guitar and Flute, Op. 109
• Frederic Chopin – Two Polonaises
• Muzio Clementi – Gradus ad Parnassum Volume I is published simultaneously in London, Paris and Leipzig on March 1.
• Friedrich Dotzauer – Pot-Pourri for Cello and Guitar, Op. 21
• Georg Gerson – Symphony in E-flat major
• Mauro Giuliani
• *Divertimenti, Op. 78
• *Preludes, Op. 83
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
• *Adagio, Variationen und Rondo über 'Pretty Polly', Op. 75
• *Variations sur un theme original, Op. 76
• Anselm Hüttenbrenner – 6 Variations, Op. 2
• Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz – 2 Harp Duos, Op. 5
• Iwan Müller – Clarinet Quartet No. 2
• Anton Reicha – Andante for Wind Quintet no. 1 in E-flat major
• Franz Schubert
• *Piano Sonata No.4, D.537
• *String Trio in B-flat major, D. 581
• *Notable Lieder: Ganymed, D.544; Der Tod und das Mädchen, D.531; Trost, D.523; An die Musik, D.547;
• Louis Spohr – String Quartet No.11, Op. 43
• Václav Jan Tomášek – 6 Eglogues, Op. 47

  Opera

• Franz Danzi – Die Probe
• Gioacchino Rossini – La Cenerentola, La Gazza Ladra, Armida, Adelaide di Borgogna

  Published Popular Music

• "Oft, in the Stilly Night" – w.m. Thomas Moore

  Births

• February 22 – Niels Gade, composer
• March 2 – Hans Hansen, composer
• March 24 – Aimé Maillart, composer
• June 13 – Antonio Torres Jurado, Spanish guitar maker
• August 13 – Károly Thern, pianist, conductor and composer
• October 5 – Eduard Franck, German composer
• November 12
• *Gustav Nottebohm, musicologist
• *Carlo Pedrotti, composer and conductor
• November 13
• *Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, organist
• *Henry Brinley Richards, composer

  Deaths

• January 14 – Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, composer
• January 28 – F.L.Æ. Kunzen, conductor and composer
• March 1 – Luigi Gatti, composer
• June 29 – Ernst Schulze, lyricist and poet
• August 24 – Nancy Storace, operatic soprano
• October 11 – Franz Xaver Hammer, gambist, cellist and composer
• October 12 – Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel, composer and pianist
• October 18 – Etienne Méhul, composer
• November 7 – Francesco Pasquale Ricci, composer
• December 1 – Justin Heinrich Knecht, organist and composer
• December 3 – August Eberhard Müller, German composer
• December 11 – Max von Schenkendorf, poet and songwriter
• date unknown – John Peacock, Northumbrian piper