1786 in music

"See also:" 1785 in music, other events of 1786, 1787 in music, list of years in music.

Events

*In Britain, William Parsons succeeds John Stanley as Master of the King's Musick.
*In Benares, Jiwan Shah and Francis Fowke conduct an experiment comparing the pitch of the harpsichord with that of a traditional Indian instrument
*America's oldest singing society was founded on November 7 as the Stoughton Musical Society.

Classical music

*"Der Apotheker und der Doktor", singspiel by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
*Mozart's piano concertos nos. 23 and 24, Prague Symphony
*Joseph Haydn - Symphony no. 82 ("Bear")

Opera

*Gioacchino Albertini - "Virginia"
*Bonifazio Asioli - "Le nozze in villa"
*Dmitri Stepanovich Bortniansky - "Le Faucon"
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
**"Der Schauspieldirektor"
**"Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro") (first performed in Vienna, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte).
*Antonio Salieri
**"Les Horaces"
**"Prima la musica e poi le parole"
*Giuseppe Sarti - "Armida e Rinaldo"

Published popular music

*First edition of Elias Mann's "Worcester Collection"

Births

*January 3 - Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider, composer
*April 18 - Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, composer
*July 25 - Giacomo Cordella, composer
*September 11 - Friedrich Kuhlau
*November 7 - Francisco Andrevi y Castellar, composer
*November 10 - Carl Eberwein, composer
*November 18 (or December 18) - Carl Maria von Weber
*November 18 - Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, Professor of Music at Oxford
*December 20 - Pietro Raimondi, composer

Deaths

*January 14 - Michael Arne
*February 20 - Johann Wolfgang Kleinknecht, composer
*March 7 -Frantisek Benda, composer
*May 19 - John Stanley
*July 22 - Vaclav Kalous, composer
*July 29 - Franz Asplmayr, composer
*August 7 - Friedrich Schwindl, composer
*August 17 - King Frederick II of Prussia, amateur composer
*September - Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, musical instrument maker
*October 6 - Antonio Maria Gaspare Sacchini, composer
*October 19 - Pietro Alessandro Pavona, composer
*"date unknown" - Sophia Baddeley, actress and singer
*"date unknown" - Jan Tomáš Kuzník, composer and music teacher