1787 in music
Encyclopedia
Events
- February 1 – A posthumous performance of Antonio SacchiniAntonio SacchiniAntonio Maria Gasparo Sacchini was an Italian opera composer.Sacchini was born in Florence, but was raised in Naples, where he received his musical education at the San Onofrio conservatory. He wrote his first operas in Naples, thereafter moving to Venice, then London and eventually Paris, where...
's Œdipe à Colone at the Paris Opéra results in the previously unsuccessful opera becoming one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire for several decades. - December – Angelo TarchiAngelo TarchiAngelo Tarchi was an Italian composer of numerous operas as well as sacred music. Between 1778 and 1787, he worked primarily in Italy, producing five or six new operas each year....
is appointed music director and composer at the King's Theatre in London. - Luigi BoccheriniLuigi BoccheriniLuigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...
becomes court composer in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. - Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
goes to ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where he meets Mozart, but his mother's death forces him to return to BonnBonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. - Luigi CherubiniLuigi CherubiniLuigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
settles in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
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Published popular music
- Robert BurnsRobert BurnsRobert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
– "The Battle of SherramuirThe Battle of Sherramuir"The Battle of Sherramuir" is a song written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns about the Battle of Sheriffmuir which occurred in Scotland in 1715 at the height of the Jacobite rebellion in England and Scotland. It was written when Burns toured the Highlands in 1787 and first published in The Scots...
" (to a traditional tune)
Classical music
- Muzio ClementiMuzio ClementiMuzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
– Two Symphonies - Giuseppe Gherardeschi – Sonata for Organ "In the Guise of a Military Band..."
- Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
- The Seven Last Words of ChristThe Seven Last Words of ChristThe Seven Last Words of Our Saviour On the Cross is an orchestral work by Joseph Haydn, commissioned in 1785 or 1786 for the Good Friday service at Cádiz Cathedral in Spain...
- Symphony No. 88 in GSymphony No. 88 (Haydn)The Symphony No. 88 in G major was written by Joseph Haydn. It is occasionally referred to as The Letter V referring to an older method of cataloguing Haydn's symphonic output.The symphony was completed in 1787...
- The Seven Last Words of Christ
- Joseph Martin KrausJoseph Martin KrausJoseph Martin Kraus , was a composer in the classical era who was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. He moved to Sweden at age 21, and died at the age of 36 in Stockholm...
– Symphony in E minor - Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
- Eine Kleine NachtmusikEine kleine NachtmusikThe Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The German title means "a little serenade", though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music"...
- String Quintet in G minorString Quintet No. 4 (Mozart)The String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Like all of Mozart's string quintets, it is a "viola quintet" in that it is scored for string quartet and an extra viola ....
- Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
- Philip PhilePhilip PhilePhilip Phile was an American composer and violinist. His year of birth is uncertain, but believed to be approximately 1734. His works include a lost Violin Concerto , but he is best known for " The President's March", written and performed at the inauguration of President George Washington.He died...
– Violin Concerto (lost)
OperaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
- Antoine Ballant – Dobrodetel'nïy volshebnik
- Giuseppe GazzanigaGiuseppe GazzanigaGiuseppe Gazzaniga was a member of the Neapolitan school of opera composers. He composed fifty-one operas and is considered to be one of the last Italian opera buffa composers.-Biography:...
– Don GiovanniDon GiovanniDon Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787... - Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
– Don GiovanniDon GiovanniDon Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
(first performed in PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in the Estates TheatreEstates TheatreThe Estates Theatre or Stavovské divadlo is a historic theatre in Prague, Czech Republic. The Estates Theatre was annexed to the National Theatre in 1948 and currently draws on three artistic ensembles, opera, ballet, and drama, which perform at the Estates Theatre, the National Theatre , and the...
, libretto by Lorenzo da PonteLorenzo Da PonteLorenzo Da Ponte was a Venetian opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte....
) - Antonio SalieriAntonio SalieriAntonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
– Tarare (libretto by Beaumarchais) - Vicente Martín y SolerVicente Martín y SolerVicente Martín y Soler was a Spanish composer of opera and ballet. Although relatively obscure today, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a composer of opera buffa. He has been called the Valencian Mozart.He was born in Valencia and studied...
– L'arbore di DianaL'arbore di DianaL'arbore di Diana , is an opera composed in 1787 by Vicente Martín y Soler, with an original libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.Da Ponte's only other libretto not taken from an existing plot was Così fan tutte....
Births
- February 13 – James P. CarrellJames P. CarrellJames P. Carrell , of Lebanon, Virginia, was a minister, singing teacher, composer and songbook compiler. He compiled two songbooks in the four-shape shape note tradition.-Musical compilations:...
, singing teacher and composer (d. 1854) - February 24 – Christian Frederik BarthChristian Frederik BarthChristian Frederik Barth was a Danish virtuoso oboist and composer.Barth was an oboist in the Royal Chapel from 1802 to 1841. He was the son of oboist Christian Samuel Barth and brother of oboist and composer Frederik Philip Carl August Barth...
, oboist and composer (d. 1861) - August 15 – Alexander Aliabiev, composer (d. 1851)
- November 17 – Michele CarafaMichele CarafaMichele Enrico Carafa di Colobrano was an Italian opera composer. He was born in Naples and studied in Paris with Luigi Cherubini. He was Professor of counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire from 1840 to 1858...
, composer (d. 1872) - November 25 – Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer of "Silent Night" (d. 1863)
- December 4 – Johan Fredrik BerwaldJohan Fredrik BerwaldJohan Fredrik Berwald was a Swedish violinist, conductor and composer. He was cousin of Franz Berwald and August Berwald.-Biography:...
, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1861)
Deaths
- February 21 – Antonio Rodríguez de HitaAntonio Rodríguez de Hita-Life:Rodríguez was born at Valverde de Alcalá. He became maestro de capilla at Palencia Cathedral and at the Royal Convent of La Encarnación, Madrid....
, composer (b. 1722) - March 30 – Princess Anna Amalia of PrussiaPrincess Anna Amalia of PrussiaPrincess Anna Amalia of Prussia was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg. She was one of ten surviving children of King Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.-Background:...
, musician, composer and music collector (b. 1723) - May 28 – Leopold MozartLeopold MozartJohann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
, violinist, music teacher and composer (b. 1719) - June – Ignazio FiorilloIgnazio FiorilloIgnazio Fiorillo was an Italian composer. He is known as an author of opera seria, often composed to the libretti of Pietro Metastasio.- Biography :Fiorillo was born in Naples, Italy...
, opera composer (b. 1715) - June 20 – Carl Friedrich Abel, viola da gamba player and composer (b. 1723)
- August 5 – François FrancoeurFrançois FrancoeurFrançois Francœur was a French composer and violinist.-Biography:He was born in Paris, the son of Joseph Francœur, a basse de violon player and member of the 24 violons du roy. Francœur was instructed in music by his father and joined the Académie Royale de Musique as a violinist at age 15...
, violinist and composer (b. 1698) - November 15 – Christoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
, composer (b. 1714) - November 23 – Anton SchweitzerAnton SchweitzerAnton Schweitzer was a German composer of operas.He was a child prodigy who obtained the patronage of the duke of Hildburghausen, who sent him to study in Bayreuth in 1758, then Italy , and made him Kapellmeister enabling him to tour Europe...
, opera composer (b. 1735) - December 9 – Bernhard Joachim HagenBernhard Joachim HagenBernhard Joachim Hagen was a German composer, violinist and lutenist. He was the last important composer of lute music in 18th century Germany.-Life:...
, composer, violinist and lutenist (b. 1720) - date unknown
- Edward Harwood (of Darwen)Edward Harwood (of Darwen)Edward Harwood was an English composer of hymns, anthems and songs. His setting of Alexander Pope's The Dying Christian was enormously popular at one time and was widely performed at funerals....
, hymn-writer (b. 1707) - Mary LinleyMary LinleyMary Linley was one of 7 musical siblings born to Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. She sang publicly until she married the playwright Richard Tickell in 1780....
, singer (b. 1758)
- Edward Harwood (of Darwen)