1759 in music

Events

• Johann Friedrich Agricola succeeds Carl Heinrich Graun as director of Frederick the Great's royal opera.
• Castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti makes his debut at the Perugia carnival, in a female role.
• Tommaso Traetta becomes court composer at Parma.

Popular music

• None listed

Opera

• Johann Ernst Eberlin – Demofoonte (lost)
• Baldassare Galuppi – La clemenza di Tito
• Florian Leopold Gassmann – Gli uccellatori
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – L'Arbre enchantée; Cythère Assiégée
• François Danican Philidor – Blaise le savetier
• Niccolò Piccinni – Ciro riconosciuto
• Tommaso Traetta – Ippolito ed Aricia
• Johann Adolph Hasse
  • La clemenza di Tito
  • Achille in Sciro

Classical music

• Carl Friedrich Abel – 6 Symphonies, Op. 1
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Viola da Gamba Sonata in G minor, H.510
• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Pieces for Musical Clock
• Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Pièces de clavecin
• William Boyce – "Heart of Oak"
• François Joseph Gossec – Sei sinfonie a più stromenti, op.4
• Joseph Haydn
  • Divertimento in G major, Hob.II:G1
  • Symphony no 1 in D Major Hob.I:1
• Leopold Mozart
  • Der Morgen und der Abend (pieces for keyboard)
  • Nannerl's Music Book
• Johan Helmich Roman – Concerto Grosso, BeRI 45
• Georg Philipp Telemann – Der Messias, TWV 6:4

Methods and music theory

• Pietro Gianotti – Le guide du compositeur
• Cornforth Gilson – Lessons on the Practice of Singing
• Antoine Mahaut – Nouvelle Méthode pour jouer la Flûte Traversière
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten und neuen Musik
• Robert Smith – Harmonics, or The Philosophy of Musical Sounds

Births

• January 19 – Karl Alexander Herklots, librettist and author (died 1830)
• January 24 – Francesco Saverio Salfi, librettist and writer (died 1832)
• January 25 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and lyricist (died 1796)
• January 31 – François Devienne, composer (died 1803)
• February 1 – Karl Friedrich Hensler, librettist and author (died 1825)
• February 11 – Ernst von Gemmingen, composer and diplomat (died 1813)
• February 27 – Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab, music editor and composer (died 1813)
• April 18 – Jacques Widerkehr, Alsatian composer and cellist (died 1823)
• 15 May – Maria Theresia von Paradis, musician and composer (died 1824)
• May 22 – Gervais-François Couperin, French composer (died 1826)
• June 19 – Helen Maria Williams, librettist and writer (died 1827)
• 19 July – Marianna Auenbrugger, composer (died 1782)
• July 29 – Antonio Simone Sografi, librettist and playwright (died 1818)
• November 10 – Friedrich Schiller, librettist and poet (died 1805)
• November 27 – Franz Krommer, composer (died 1831)
• December 25 – John Beckwith, composer and musician (died 1809)
• unknown date
  • Franz Gleissner, German composer (died 1818)
  • William Matthews of Nottingham, composer

Deaths

• March 19 – Sebastian Bodinus, German composer (born c. 1700)
• April 14 – George Frideric Handel, composer (born 1685)
• June 12 – William Collins, librettist and poet (born 1721)
• June 22 – Louis de Cahusac, librettist (born 1706)
• July 25 – Johann Christoph Altnickol, organist, singer and composer (born 1719)
• August 8 – Carl Heinrich Graun, composer (born 1704)
• August 24 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, librettist and poet (born 1715)
• September 4 – Girolamo Chiti, composer
• October 18 – Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, French composer (born c. 1680)
• date unknown – Gustavus Waltz, singer