1789 in music

Events

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart travels to Berlin.
• Joseph Haydn meets Maria Anna von Genzinger.
• Adalbert Gyrowetz arrives in Paris.
• Luigi Cherubini becomes music director for the Théâtre Monsieur.
• Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach becomes Kapellmeister at Berlin.
• Anna Storace appears in a London production of Giovanni Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
• Mozart writes to his fellow Freemason and benefactor, Puchberg, saying that next time they meet, he will tell him about Antonio Salieri’s plots "which, however, have completely failed".
• Ignaz Joseph Pleyel becomes Kapellmeister of Strasbourg Cathedral in succession to Franz Xaver Richter.

Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven – Two Preludes through all twelve major keys for piano, Op. 39
• William Hamilton Bird – The Oriental Miscellany
• William Crotch – The Captivity of Judah (oratorio)
• Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – String Quintet in G major, Kr.190
• Jean-Louis Duport – 6 Cello Sonatas, Op. 4
• Jan Ladislav Dussek – Piano Sonatas No. 4–6, Op. 10
• John Gunn – 40 Favorite Scotch Airs for Violin, Flute, or Cello
• Joseph Haydn
  • Symphony No. 92 in G, "Oxford"
  • Fantasia in C major, Hob.XVII:4
• Leopold Anton Kozeluch – Concerto for Clarinet no 2 in E flat major
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Clarinet Quintet in A major
  • Un moto di gioia mi sento, K.579
• Vasilj Alekseevič Paškevič – Muzyka operyi Komitscheskoi Fewej
• Philip Phile – "The President's March"
• Ignaz Pleyel
  • String Quintet in F major, B.285
  • 3 Flute Quartets, B.381–383
  • 6 Violin Duos, B.513–518
• Karl Leopold Röllig – Kleine Tonstücke für die Glasharmonika
• Daniel Gottlob Türk – Klaviersonaten, größtenteils für Kenner
• Giovanni Battista Viotti – Violin Concerto No.16 in E minor

Opera

• Domenico Cimarosa – I Due Baroni
• André Grétry – Raoul Barbe-Bleue
• Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne – Nephté
• Giovanni Paisiello – Nina
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Brenno; Claudine von Villa Bella
• Antonio Salieri – Il Pastor fido; La Cifra; both with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
• Stephen Storace – The Haunted Tower
• Paul Wranitzky – Oberon, König der Elfen

Methods and theory writings

• André Grétry – Mémoires, ou essai sur la musique
• John Gunn – The Theory and Practice of Fingering the Violoncello
• Manuel da Paixão Ribeiro – Nova arte de viola
• Luigi Antonio Sabbatini – Elementi teorici della musica
• Daniel Gottlob Türk
  • Klavierscule
  • Von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten

Births

• January 30 – George Augustus Kollmann, composer
• February 1 – Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, composer (d. 1861)
• February 8 – Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, composer (d. 1878)
• February 15 – Friedrich Fesca, composer (d. 1826)
• May 24 – Cathinka Buchwieser, German opera singer and actress (d.1828)
• June 27 – Friedrich Silcher, composer (d. 1860)
• September 1 – Franz Anton Adam Stockhausen, composer
• October 18 – Giovanni Tadolini, composer
• October 24 – Ramon Carnicer y Batlle, composer (d. 1855)
• October 26 – Joseph Mayseder
• October 28 – Johann Schneider, composer
• November 13 – Martin de Ron, composer
• December 8 – John Fawcett, composer (d. 1867)
• December 14 – Maria Agata Szymanowska, composer (d. 1831)

Deaths

• January 1 – Christleib Siegmund Binder, composer
• January 2 – Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schavensee, composer
• January 20 – Johann Christoph Oley, composer
• February 2 – Armand-Louis Couperin, organist and composer (b. 1727)
• May 10 – Guillaume Gommaire Kennis, composer
• May 12 – Robert Bremner, music collector and publisher (born 1713)
• June 7 – Václav Jan Kopřiva (b. 1708)
• June 14 – Johann Wilhelm Hertel, composer (b. 1727)
• July 4 – Cláudio Manuel da Costa, poet and conductor (b. 1729)
• July 15 – Jacques Duphly, composer (b. 1715)
• September 11 – Luka Sorkočević, composer (b. 1734) (suicide)
• September 12 – Franz Xaver Richter, composer (b. 1709)
• October 24 – Joaquin de Oxinaga, composer
• date unknown
  • Minette, actress, singer and dancer (b. 1767) (killed in Haitian race riot)
  • Andreas Lidl, British composer (born c. 1740)