1787 in music

List of years in music (table)
… 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 …
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Events

• February 1 – A posthumous performance of Antonio Sacchini'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.
• August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his famous serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
• December – Angelo Tarchi is appointed music director and composer at the King's Theatre in London.
• Luigi Boccherini becomes court composer in Berlin.
• Ludwig van Beethoven goes to Vienna, intending to study with Mozart, but his mother's death forces him to return to Bonn.
• Luigi Cherubini settles in Paris.

Publications

• Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1

Published popular music

• Robert Burns – "The Battle of Sherramuir" (to a traditional tune)
• "Ein Schifflein sah ich fahren" (Soldatenlied ca.1787)

Classical music

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
  • Fantasia in F-sharp minor, H.300
  • Neue Melodien, H.781
• William Brown – 3 Rondos
• Charles Burney – Preludes, Fugues and Interludes for the Organ
• Muzio Clementi
  • Two Symphonies, Op. 18
  • Musical Characteristics, Op. 19
  • Piano Sonata, Op. 20
• Michel Corrette – Pièces pour l’orgue dans un genre nouveau
• Francois Devienne – Flute Concerto No.7 in E minor
• Jean-Louis Duport – Cello Concerto No.1 in A major, Op. 1
• Giuseppe Gherardeschi – Sonata for Organ "In the Guise of a Military Band..."
• Joseph Haydn
  • The Seven Last Words of Christ
  • Symphony No. 88 in G
  • String Quartets, Op. 50 (String Quartets No. 36-41)
• Franz Anton Hoffmeister – 2 Keyboard Sonatas, WeiH 80
• Leopold Kozeluch
  • Three Symphonies, Op. 22
  • Three Symphonies, Op. 24
  • Moise in Egitto
• Joseph Martin Kraus – Symphony in E minor
• Jose Lidon – 6 Piezas o Sonatas sueltas para órgano
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
  • String Quintet No. 3 in C major
  • String Quintet No. 4 in G minor
  • Rondo in A minor, K.511
  • Clarinet Quintet, K.Anh.91
  • Musikalisches Würfelspiel, K.516f
  • Die Alte, K.517
  • Die Verschweigung, K.518
  • Das Lied der Trennung, K.519
  • Als Luise die Briefe, K.520
  • Abendempfindung, K.523
  • Die kleine Spinnerin, K.531
  • 5 Country Dances, K.609
• William Parsons – The Court Minuets for Her Majesty's Birth Day, 1787
• Philip Phile – Violin Concerto (lost)
• Ignaz Pleyel – 3 String Trios, B.401-403

Opera

• Samuel Arnold – Inkle and Yarico (libretto by George Colman the Younger)
• Antoine Ballant – Dobrodetel'nïy volshebnik
• Domenico Cimarosa – Volodimiro
• Giuseppe Gazzaniga – Don Giovanni
• Vicente Martín y Soler – L'arbore di Diana
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Don Giovanni (first performed in Prague in the Estates Theatre, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte)
• Antonio Salieri – Tarare (libretto by Beaumarchais)
• Giovanni Paisiello – La modista raggiratrice, R.1.74

Methods and theory writings

• Ferdinand Kauer – Kurzgefaßte Clavierschule für Anfänger
• Edward Miller – Elements of Thorough Bass and Composition, Op. 5
• Etienne Ozi – Nouvelle méthode de basson
• Carl Leopold Röllig – Über die Harmonika

Births

• January 31 – Ulric Guttinguer, librettist and writer (died 1866)
• February 13 – James P. Carrell, singing teacher and composer (d. 1854)
• February 24 – Christian Frederik Barth, oboist and composer (d. 1861)
• March 1 – Tobias Haslinger, composer and publisher (died 1842)
• April 14 – Charles-François Plantade, French composer (died 1870)
• April 26 – Ludwig Uhland, librettist and poet (died 1862)
• July 7 – César Malan, composer and theologian (died 1864)
• August 15 – Alexander Aliabiev, composer (d. 1851)
• November 17 – Michele Carafa, composer (d. 1872)
• November 21 – Barry Cornwall, librettist and poet (died 1874)
• November 25 – Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer of "Silent Night" (d. 1863)
• December 4 – Johan Fredrik Berwald, violinist, conductor and composer (d. 1861)
• December 13 – Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, librettist and dramatist (died 1865)
• December 14 – Maria Ludovika, patron of Beethoven and queen of Austria (died 1816)
• date unknown
  • Franz Xaver Gebel, German composer (died 1843)
  • Catharina Torenberg, violinist (d. 1866)

Deaths

• February 21 – Antonio Rodríguez de Hita, composer (b. 1722)
• March 30 – Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, musician, composer and music collector (b. 1723)
• April 22 – Josef Starzer, Austrian composer (born 1726)
• May 20 – Giovan Gualberto Brunetti, Italian composer (born 1706)
• May 28 – Leopold Mozart, violinist, music teacher and composer (b. 1719)
• June – Ignazio Fiorillo, opera composer (b. 1715)
• June 20 – Carl Friedrich Abel, viola da gamba player and composer (b. 1723)
• July 13 – Ignazio Cirri, composer and musician (born 1711)
• July 27 – Mary Linley, singer (b. 1758)
• August 5 – François Francoeur, violinist and composer (b. 1698)
• August 18 – Stephen Paxton, composer and musician (born 1734)
• November 15 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer (b. 1714)
• November 23 – Anton Schweitzer, opera composer (b. 1735)
• December 9 – Bernhard Joachim Hagen, composer, violinist and lutenist (b. 1720)
• date unknown – Edward Harwood (of Darwen), hymn-writer (b. 1707)