1779 in music

Events

• February 16 – Composer William Boyce is buried in St Paul's Cathedral. The music at his funeral features the massed choirs of St Paul's itself, Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
• March 7 – Griffith Jones, aged about 21, is recommended for membership of the Royal Society of Musicians.
• April – The London Magazine reports on the organ-playing of three-year-old prodigy William Crotch.
• December 26 – Teatro alla Scala in Milan opens its operatic carnival season with Josef Mysliveček's new opera Armida.
• The opera house at Eszterháza burns down.
• Mezzo-soprano Luigia Polzelli and her violinist husband Antonio arrive at the Esterházy court, where she quickly becomes the lover of Joseph Haydn.

Opera

• Johann Christian Bach – Amadis de Gaule (premiered Dec. 14 in Paris)
• Domenico Cimarosa
• L'infedeltà fedele
• L'italiana in Londra (premiered Dec. 28 in Rome)
• Il matrimonio per raggiro
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Iphigénie en Tauride (premiered May 18 in Paris)
• André Ernest Modeste Grétry – L'amant jaloux (first published, premiered 1778)
• Joseph Haydn – L'isola disabitata
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zaide
• Giovanni Paisiello – Demetrio, R.1.59
• Antonio Salieri – Il Talismano

Classical music

• Anna Amalia – Organ Trio in C major
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
• Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, Wq.55
• Rondo in E major, Wq. 57, H.265
• Rondo in F major, Wq. 57, H.266
• Claude-Bénigne Balbastre – Sonates en Quatuor, Op. 3 (Paris)
• William Billings – Music in Miniature
• William Boyce – 10 Voluntaries for the Organ
• Muzio Clementi
• 6 Sonatas, Op. 2
• 3 Piano Duets and 3 Sonatas, Op. 3
• François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie Concertante du Ballet de Mirza, B.90
• Joseph Haydn
• Symphony No. 70 in D major
• Symphony No. 71 in B-flat major, Hob.I:71
• Symphony No. 75 in D Major
• Aria: "Quando la rosa"
• Michael Haydn – Symphony No.23 in D major, MH 287, P.43
• Johann Adam Hiller – "Lieder und Arien aus Sophiens Reise", compilation including pieces from Mozart.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Kommet her, ihr frechen Sünder, K.146/317b
• Mass in C major, K.317 (Composed March 23, Premiered April 4 in Salzburg)
• Symphony No.32 in G major, K.318 (Composed April 26)
• Symphony No.33 in B-flat major, K.319
• Serenade in D major, "Posthorn" K.320
• Vesperae solennes de Dominica in C. K.341
• Church Sonata in C major, K.329/317a
• 2 Marches, K.335/320a
• Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K.364/320d
• Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos, K.365/316a
• Johann Heinrich Rolle – Thirza und ihre Söhne (oratorio)
• Johann Adolph Hasse - Mass in E-flat major
• Joseph Bologne Saint-Georges – 2 Symphonies, Op.11
• Antonio Salieri – Organ Concerto in C major
• William Shrubsole – "Miles's Lane (All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name)", in The Gospel Magazine and Moral Miscellany, Vol.6.
• Maria Carolina Wolf – "Die Rose"
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – Viola Concerto in E-flat major

Methods and theory writings

• Joseph Amiot – Mémoire sur la musique des Chinois
• Anton Bemitzrieder – Nouvel essai sur l'harmonie
• François Vincent Corbelin – Méthode de Harpe
• Franz Paul Rigler – Anleitung zum Klavier
• Francisco Inácio Solano – '
• Francesco Antonio Vallotti – Della scienza teorica e pratica della moderna musica (On the scientific theory and practice of modern music)