1787 in music

Events

*Luigi Boccherini becomes court composer in Berlin.
*Ludwig van Beethoven goes to Vienna, where he meets Mozart, but his mother's death forces him to return to Bonn.
*Luigi Cherubini settles in Paris.
*"Scots Musical Museum" published

Published popular music

*Robert Burns - "The Battle of Sherramuir" (to a traditional tune)

Classical music

*Muzio Clementi - "Two Symphonies"
*Giuseppe Gherardeschi - "Sonata for Organ "In the Guise of a Military Band..."
*Joseph Haydn
**"The Seven Last Words of Christ"
**"Symphony No. 89 in F major"
*Joseph Martin Kraus - "Symphony in E minor"

Opera

*Antoine Ballant - "Dobrodetel'nïy volshebnik"
*Giuseppe Gazzaniga - "Don Giovanni"
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Don Giovanni" (first performed in Prague in the Estates Theatre, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte)
*Antonio Salieri - "Tarare" (libretto by Beaumarchais)

Births

*January 8 - Johann Ludwig Bohner, composer
*February 13 - James P. Carrell, composer
*August 15 - Alexander Aliabiev, composer
*September 1 - John Bake, composer
*October 30 - Karl Guhr, composer
*November 17 - Michele Carafa, composer
*November 25 - Franz Xaver Gruber, organist and composer of "Silent Night"
*November 27 - Christian Rummel
*December 1 - Pavel Ivanovich Dulgorukov, composer

Deaths

*May 13 - Johann Michael Malzat, composer
*May 28 - Leopold Mozart, violinist, music teacher and composer (b. 1719)
*June 20 - Carl Friedrich Abel, viola da gamba player and composer (b. 1723)
*August 5 - François Francoeur, violinist and composer (b. 1698)
*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" - Mary Linley, singer (b. 1758)