Classical music

• John Blow
  John Blow
  John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...
  
   – Ode for New Year's Day
• Georg Muffat
  Georg Muffat
  -Life:He was born in Megève, Savoy, , and of Scottish descent. He studied in Paris with Jean Baptiste Lully between 1663 and 1669, then became an organist in Molsheim and Sélestat. Later, he studied law in Ingolstadt, afterwards settling in Vienna...
  
   – Armonico tributo, a collection of sonatas
• Robert de Visée
  Robert de Visée
  Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of Louis XIV, as well as a singer, and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar.-Biography:...
  
   – Livre di guittarre dédié au roy

Births

• April 3 – Johann Valentin Rathgeber, German composer (died 1750)
• April 16 – Jean-Joseph Mouret
  Jean-Joseph Mouret
  Jean-Joseph Mouret was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country...
  
  , French composer (died 1738)
• July or August – Christian Ferdinand Abel
  Christian Ferdinand Abel
  Christian Ferdinand Abel was one of the most famous German Baroque violinists, cellists and especially viol virtuosos....
  
  , German violist
• date unknown – Santiago Murcia, composer for guitar

Deaths

• February 25 – Alessandro Stradella
  Alessandro Stradella
  Alessandro Stradella was an Italian composer of the middle baroque. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, collaborating with distinguished poets, producing over three hundred works in a variety of genres.-Life:Not much is known about his early life, but he...
  
  , composer (born 1639)
• March – Francis Sempill
  Francis Sempill
  Francis Sempill was a son of Robert Sempill the younger.No details of his education are known. His fidelity to the Stuarts involved him in money difficulties, tomeet which he alienated portions of his estates to his son. Before 1677 he was appointed sheriff-depute of Renfrewshire...
  
  , writer of ballads (born c.1616)