1776 in music

Events

• Giovanni Paisiello is invited to the court of Catherine the Great, where he will stay for eight years.
• Court Theatre in Stockholm built by King Gustav III of Sweden

Popular music

• Daniel Dow – "Money Musk"
• Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship by Augustus Montague Toplady

Opera

• Gaetano Marinelli – Il Barone di Sardafritta
• Giovanni Paisiello – Il finto spettro (December 26, Mannheim)
• Ignaz Pleyel – Die Fee Urgele
• Antonio Tozzi – Le Due Gemelli
• Tommaso Traetta – Germondo

Classical music

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
  • 6 Keyboard Trios, Wq.89
  • 3 Keyboard Trios, Wq.90
• Johann Christian Bach – Die Amerikanerin
• Luigi Boccherini – 6 String Quintets, G.277-282 (Op.13)
• Felice Giardini – String Quartet in E-flat major
• William Goodwin – Voluntary XII in D major
• François Joseph Gossec – Symphonie de chasse; Symphonie en ré
• Johann Wilhelm Hässler – 6 Keyboard Sonatas
• James Hook – The Ascension (oratorio)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Piano Concerto No. 8 ("Lützow"), K.246
  • Haffner Serenade, K.250
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony No. 61, Hob.I:61
• Juliane Reichardt – An den Mond
• Antonio Salieri – La Passione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo für Soli, vierstimmigen Chor und Orchester
• Carl Stamitz – 6 Quartets, Op. 14
• Daniel Gottlob Türk – 6 Keyboard Sonatas, Sammlung 1
• Johann Adolph Hasse - Te Deum in G major

Methods and theory writings

• Charles Burney – A General History of Music, vol. 1 (vol. 2 published 1782, vols. 3 and 4 in 1789)
• John Hawkins – A General History of the Science and Practice of Music

Births

• January 24 – Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, author and composer
• February 18 – John Parry, composer
• February 21 – Vincenzo Lavigna, composer
• March 31 – Joseph Küffner, composer (died 1856)
• April 8 – Thaddäus Weigl, composer
• April 27 – Hyacinthe Jadin, composer (died 1800)
• May 10 – George Thomas Smart, composer
• May 12 – Juan Bros y Bertomel, composer
• May 13 – Charles Ots and Rodrigo Ferreira da Costa, composers
• June 1 – John George Schetky, composer
• August 4 – Wenzel Sedlak, composer
• August 15 – Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried, composer
• August 16 – Philipp Jakob Riotte, composer
• August 19 – Johan Peter Strömberg, dancer and theatre director
• August 29 – Georg Friedrich Treitschke, librettist (died 1842)
• December 6 – Paul Friedrich Struck, composer

Deaths

• February 13 – Luis Misón, composer, 50
• April 22 – Johann Adolph Scheibe, music theorist, 67
• May 6 – James Kent, composer, 76
• June 10 – Leopold Widhalm, luthier, 53
• November 29 – Zanetta Farussi, opera singer, 69
• date unknown
  • Thomas Capell, organist (date of birth unknown)
  • Josep Carcoler, composer, 78
  • Aaron Williams, composer, 45