1740 in music

Events

• Johann Sebastian Bach begins to lose his sight.
• Carl Heinrich Graun becomes Kapellmeister to Frederick II of Prussia. Johann Joachim Quantz becomes Frederick's flute teacher.
• Ferdinando Bertoni arrives in Bologna where he becomes a pupil of Giovanni Battista Martini.
• December 26 – The Teatro Regio (Turin) is inaugurated with a performance of Francesco Feo's opera Arsace.

Classical music

• Thomas Arne – Alfred (masque), including the song, "Rule Britannia"
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
• Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in F major, H.408
• Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.410
• Flute Sonata in A minor, H.555
• Christoph Graupner – Violin Sonata in G minor, GWV 711
• George Frideric Handel – L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55
• Giuseppe Tartini – Violin Concerto in C major, D.1
• Georg Philipp Telemann – 6 Overtures for Clavier, TWV 32:5–10 (Published ca. 1742 in Nuremberg, as VI Ouverturen nebst zween Folgesätzen)

Opera

• Bernardo Aliprandi – Semiramide riconosciuta
• Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi – La Beatrice
• Baldassare Galuppi – Gustavo primo re di Svezia
• Maurice Greene – The Judgement of Hercules
• George Frideric Handel – Imeneo, HWV 41 (first performed, composed in 1738)
• Nicola Porpora – Il trionfo di Camilla
• Luca Antonio Predieri – Zenobia

Publications

• Thomas Arne – Comus (London: William Smith). First performed 1738.
• Jean-Baptiste Barrière – 6 Cello Sonatas, Livre 4 (Paris: Composer) (Likely composed 1737–1740)
• Michel Blavet – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 3
• Louis de Caix d'Hervelois – Pièces de viole, Livre 4
• Esprit Philippe Chédeville – 6 Sonatilles galantes, Op. 6
• Nicolas Chédeville – Les Deffis ou l'étude amusante, Op. 9
• Antoine Dauvergne
• 6 Trio Sonatas, Op. 1
• 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 2
• Michel Richard Delalande – Noëls en Trio avec un Carillon, S.173.24 (composed 1725, published posthumously)
• George Frideric Handel
• Op. 6, 12 Concerti Grossi
• "A Second Set of Six Concertos" (London: John Walsh) (arranged for organ, No. 3–6 are also in Op. 6)
• James Oswald – A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes
• Johan Helmich Roman – Assaggio in G minor, BeRI 314 (Stockholm: Composer) likely composed earlier.
• Carlo Tessarini – 6 Allettamenti da camera, Op. 3 (there is another Op. 3 by Tessarini, a set of 10 violin concerti)
• Antonio Vivaldi – 6 Cello Sonatas, Le Clerc Op. 14 (Paris: Le Clerc le Cadet)
• Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer – Concerti Armonici (composed between 1725–1740, originally published anonymously and attributed to various composers)

Methods and theory writings

• Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre à jouër la flûtte
• John Frederick Lampe – The Art of Musick
• Johann Mattheson – Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte

Births

• February 3 – Guillaume Lasceux (died 1831)
• February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, poet and composer (died 1795)
• February 15 – Ernst Eichner (died 1777)
• May 9 – Giovanni Paisiello, composer (died 1816)
• July 26 – Louis-Augustin Richer, classical singer, singing master and composer (died 1819)
• August 10 – Samuel Arnold (composer), (died 1802)
• October 7 – Samuel Webbe (died 1816)
• November 4 – Augustus Montague Toplady, hymn-writer (died 1778)
• December – Elisabeth Olin, operatic soprano (died 1828)
• unknown date
• John Antes, composer (died 1811)
• Sir Peter Beckford, English peer (died 1811), patron of Muzio Clementi
• Samuel Webbe, composer (died 1816)
• probable – Anna Bon, singer and composer

Deaths

• January 5 – Antonio Lotti, composer (born 1667)
• January 13 – William Turner, singer and composer (born 1651)
• January 25 – Geminiano Giacomelli, composer (born 1692)
• February 9 – Vincent Lübeck, organist and composer (born 1654)
• February 25 – Dietrich Bernhard Ludewig (born 1707)
• October 14 – Domenico Alberti, composer (born c.1710)
• unknown date
• André Bouys, painter and copyist (born c.1656)
• Edward Purcell, organist (born 1689)
• Poul Christian Schindler, composer (born 1648)
• probable – François Dieupart, French composer (born after 1667)