1781 in music

List of years in music (table)
... 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 ... 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 ... 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 ...
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Events

• March - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart moves to Vienna to pursue his career, but is passed over in favour of Antonio Salieri as music teacher of Princess of Württemberg.
• June 27 - Mozart writes of his new pupil and admirer, Josepha Barbara Auernhammer: "I am almost every day after dinner at H: v: Auernhammer - The freulle is a monster!" *Christian Gottlob Neefe takes on the young Ludwig van Beethoven as a pupil.
• July 29 - Mozart receives the original libretto of his next opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the director of the Nationalsingspiel, Gottlieb Stephanie.
• October 12 - First bagpipes competition in the Masonic Arms, Falkirk, Scotland.
• Étienne Méhul makes his first, unsuccessful attempts at orchestral composition.

Classical music

• Joseph Haydn – String Quartets, Op. 33
• Giovanni Paisiello – Concerto for Keyboard no 1 in C major
• Samuel Wesley – Concerto for Violin no 2 in D major
• Leopold Kozeluch - Sonata for Keyboard in F 'La chasse', Op. 5

Opera

• Miles Peter Andrews & Samuel Arnold – The Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern
• Antonio Calegari – Deucalione e Pirra
• Domenico Cimarosa – Giannina e Bernardone
• Elizabeth Craven et al. – The Silver Tankard
• Nicolas Dalayrac – Le Chevalier à la mode
• Marc-Antoine Désaugiers – Les Deux sylphes
• Joseph Haydn – La fedeltà premiata
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Idomeneo
• Niccolò Piccinni – Iphigenie en Tauride
• Antonio Salieri – Der Rauchfangkehrer
• Giuseppe Sarti – Giulio Sabino
• Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli – Montesuma

Births

• January 22 – François Antoine Habeneck, violinist and conductor (died 1849)
• March 11 – Anthony Philip Heinrich, composer (died 1861)
• July 20 - Sophie Lebrun, pianist and composer, daughter of Ludwig August Lebrun (died 1863)
• July 27 – Mauro Giuliani, guitarist, cellist and composer (died 1829)
• September 5 – Anton Diabelli, music publisher, editor and composer (died 1858)
• September 6 – Vincent Novello, organist and conductor (died 1861)
• November 18 – Felice Blangini, organist and composer (died 1841)
• December 1 – Charles Philippe Lafont, violinist and composer (died 1839)

Deaths

• January 22 – Johann Siebenkas, composer
• February 4 – Josef Mysliveček, 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 Kellie, musician and composer (b. 1732)
• October 27 – Herman-François Delange
• October – Anton Zimmermann, composer
• November 4 – Faustina Bordoni, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1697)
• date unknown – William Paxton, cellist (b. 1737)