1781 in music
Encyclopedia
Events
- March - 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...
moves 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...
to pursue his career, but is passed over in favour of 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....
as music teacher of Princess of Württemberg. - June 27 - Mozart writes of his new pupil and admirer, Josepha Barbara AuernhammerJosepha Barbara AuernhammerJosepha Barbara Auernhammer was an Austrian pianist and composer.She was born in Vienna, the eleventh child of Johann Michael Auernhammer and Elisabeth Timmer....
: "I am almost every day after dinner at H: v: Auernhammer - The freulle is a monster!" *Christian Gottlob NeefeChristian Gottlob NeefeChristian Gottlob Neefe was a German opera composer and conductor.Neefe was born in Chemnitz, Saxony. He received a musical education and started to compose at the age of 12...
takes on the young 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...
as a pupil. - Étienne MéhulÉtienne MéhulEtienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:...
makes his first, unsuccessful attempts at orchestral composition.
Classical music
- 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...
– String Quartets, Op. 33String Quartets, Op. 33 (Haydn)The Op. 33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. This set of quartets has several nicknames, the most common of which is the "Russian" quartets, because Haydn dedicated the quartets to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and... - Giovanni PaisielloGiovanni PaisielloGiovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...
– Concerto for Keyboard no 1 in C major - Samuel WesleySamuel WesleySamuel Wesley was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart and was called by some "the English Mozart."-Personal life:...
– Concerto for Violin no 2 in D major
Opera
- Miles Peter AndrewsMiles Peter AndrewsMiles Peter Andrews was an 18th century English playwright, gunpowder manufacturer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1796 to 1814.-Biography:...
& Samuel ArnoldSamuel Arnold (composer)Samuel Arnold was an English composer and organist.Arnold was born in London , and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written...
– The Baron KinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdernThe Baron KinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdernThe Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern is an 18th century comic opera written by English composer Samuel Arnold and English playwright Miles Peter Andrews .The opera was based on a novel by Lady Craven... - Antonio CalegariAntonio CalegariAntonio Calegari was an Italian baroque composer. His oratorio La risurrezione di Lazzaro 1779, was recorded under Filippo Maria Bressan in 2000....
– Deucalione e Pirra - Domenico CimarosaDomenico CimarosaDomenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...
– Giannina e BernardoneGiannina e BernardoneGiannina e Bernardone is a dramma giocoso in two acts by composer Domenico Cimarosa with an Italian libretto by Filippo Livigni. The opera premiered in the autumn of 1781 at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, Italy... - Elizabeth CravenElizabeth CravenElizabeth Craven , Princess Berkeley , previously "Lady Craven" of Hamstead Marshall, was an author, playwright, traveller, and socialite, perhaps best known for her travelogues...
et al. – The Silver Tankard - Nicolas DalayracNicolas DalayracNicolas-Marie d'Alayrac, known as Nicolas Dalayrac , was a French composer, best known for his opéras-comiques.- Biography :...
– Le Chevalier à la mode - Marc-Antoine Désaugiers – Les Deux sylphes
- 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...
– La fedeltà premiataLa fedeltà premiataLa fedeltà premiata is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn first performed at Eszterháza on 25 February 1781 to celebrate the reopening of the court theatre after a fire... - 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...
– IdomeneoIdomeneoIdomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712... - ass
- 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....
– Der RauchfangkehrerDer RauchfangkehrerDer Rauchfangkehrer, oder Die Unentbehrlichen Verräther ihrer Herrschaften aus Eigennutz is an opera in three acts by Antonio Salieri to a German libretto by Leopold Auenbrugger... - Giuseppe SartiGiuseppe SartiGiuseppe Sarti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born on 28 December, but his baptism certificate proves the later date impossible...
– Giulio SabinoGiulio SabinoGiulio Sabino is a dramma per musica in three acts by Giuseppe Sarti. The libretto was by Pietro Giovannini.... - Niccolò Antonio ZingarelliNiccolò Antonio ZingarelliNiccolò Antonio Zingarelli was an Italian composer, chiefly of opera.-Early career:Zingarelli was born in Naples, where he studied at the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatory under Fenaroli and Speranza....
– Montesuma
Births
- January 22 – François-Antoine Habeneck, composer
- March 11 – Anthony Philip HeinrichAnthony Philip HeinrichAnthony Philip Heinrich was the first "full-time" American composer, and the most prominent before the American Civil War. He did not start composing until he was 36, after losing his business fortune in the Napoleonic Wars. For most of his career he was known as "Father Heinrich," an emeritus...
- March 18 – Gustave Vogt, oboist and composer
- April 22 – Christian Friedrich Hermann Uber, composer
- May 24 – Louis-François Dauprat, composer and horn-player
- June 10 – Giovanni Battista Polledro, composer
- July 27 – Mauro GiulianiMauro GiulianiMauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani was an Italian guitarist, cellist and composer, and is considered by many to be one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th century.- Biography :...
- September 5 – Anton DiabelliAnton DiabelliAnton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...
- November 3 – Johann Ernst Friedrich Wollank, composer
- November 18 – Felice BlanginiFelice BlanginiGiuseppe Marco Maria Felice Blangini, a musical composer, was born in Turin in 1781, and died in Paris, Dec. 1841. At 12 he was organist of the cathedral in that city, and at 14 led a mass with a full orchestra. He went to Paris in 1799, and was for several years a successful composer of opera there...
, composer - December 1 – Charles Philippe LafontCharles Philippe LafontCharles Philippe Lafont was a French violinist and composer.-Biography:Born in Paris, he received his first lessons from his mother. He later studied with Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Rode....
, composer - unknown date – Vincent NovelloVincent NovelloVincent Novello , English musician, son of an Italian who married an English wife, was born in London....
Deaths
- January 22 – Johann Siebenkas, composer
- February 4 – Josef MyslivečekJosef MyslivecekJosef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music...
, composer (b. 1737) - May 22 – Garret Wesley Mornington, composer
- July 11 – Adolph Carl Kunzen, composer
- July 30 – Augustin Ullinger, composer
- October 9 – Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of KellieThomas Erskine, 6th Earl of KellieThomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie , styled Viscount Fentoun and Lord Pittenweem until 1756, was a British musician and composer whose considerable talent brought him international fame and his rakish habits notoriety, but nowadays is little known...
, musician and composer (b. 1732) - October 27 – Herman-François Delange
- October – Anton Zimmermann, composer
- November 4 – Faustina BordoniFaustina BordoniFaustina Bordoni was an Italian mezzo-soprano.-Early career:She was born in Venice and brought up under the protection of the aristocratic brother composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello. Her singing teacher was another composer, Michelangelo Gasparini...
, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1697) - date unknown – William PaxtonWilliam Paxton (musician)William Paxton was a cellist in England. He composed several sets of duets and solos for the cello, including six duos for two cellos , eight duos for violin and cello , six solos for violin , four solos for violin and two for the cello , twelve easy lessons for cello . and six solos for cello...
, cellist (b. 1737)