Events

April – George Frideric Handel suffers a probable stroke, resulting in the temporary paralysis of his right arm.
November 4 – Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, inaugurated with a performance of Domenico Sarro's Achille in Sciro.
William Boyce conducts the Three Choirs Festival

Classical music

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- Harpsichord Concerto in G major, H. 405
- Flute Sonata in E minor, H. 551
Johann Sebastian Bach – Mass in G major, BWV 236
Christoph Graupner – Concerto for Chalumeau, Bassoon and Cello in C major, GWV 306
George Frideric Handel – Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, HWV 264
Leonardo Leo
- Cello Concerto in D major, L. 10
- Cello Concerto in A major, L. 20
- Cello Concerto in F minor, L. 40
Nicola Porpora – Il Gedeone (sacred oratorio)
Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel – Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, H. 342
Jan Dismas Zelenka
- Requiem, ZWV 45 (attribution is contested)
- 6 Ave Regina Coelorum, ZWV 128
- Il diamante, ZWV 177

Domenico Alberti – Endimione
Giovanni Bononcini – Zenobia
Riccardo Broschi – Merope
George Frideric Handel
- Arminio (first performed, composed in 1736))
- Giustino, HWV 37 (first performed, composed in 1736)
- Berenice, HWV 38 (completed, first performed)
- Faramondo, HWV 39 (composed, first performed 1738)
Johann Adolph Hasse – Asteria
John Frederick Lampe and Henry Carey – The Dragon of Wantley
Leonardo Leo
- L'Olimpiade
- Siface
Jean-Philippe Rameau – Castor et Pollux
Nicola Antonio Porpora – Lucio Papirio
Domenico Sarro – Achille in Sciro
Antonio Vivaldi
- Catone In Utica
- Oracolo in Messenia, RV 726

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – 9 Sonatas and Chaconne, Op. 66
Nicolas Chédeville – Il Pastor Fido Sonatas (originally attributed to Vivaldi as his Op. 13)
Michel Corrette – Premier Livre d’Orgue, Op. 16
Charles Dollé – Pièces de viole, Op. 2
Giovanni Battista Ferrandini – 6 Sonatas, Op. 2
Charles-Joseph van Helmont – Pièces de Clavecin, Op. 1
Jean-Marie Leclair
- 6 Violin Concertos, Op. 7
- Deuxième recréation de musique d’une execution facile, Op. 8 (Paris)
Pietro Locatelli – 12 Sonate da camera, Op. 6
Il Maestro di Musica – Pasticcio with music by Pietro Auletta, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Parisotti
Ohrenvergnügendes und gemütergötzendes Tafelkonfekt, Augsburg. (includes works by Valentin Rathgeber)

Carl Johann Friedrich Haltmeier – Anleitung zum Transponieren
Jacques Hotteterre – Méthode pour la musette, Op. 10
David Kellner – Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß
John Frederick Lampe – A Plain and Compendious Method of Teaching Thorough Bass
Johann Mattheson – Kern Melodischer Wissenschafft
Jean-Phillipe Rameau – Génération harmonique, ou Traité de musique théorique et pratique
Johann Adolph Scheibe – Der critische Musicus

January 3 – Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg, poet and librettist (died 1823)
January 19 – Giuseppe Millico, castrato singer, composer and music teacher (died 1802)
March 9 – Josef Mysliveček, composer (died 1781)
April 10 – François Giroust (died 1799)
September 14 – Michael Haydn, composer (died 1806)
September 21 – Francis Hopkinson (died 1791)
November 25 – Christian Friedrich Penzel (died 1801)
date unknown
- William Paxton, cellist and composer (died 1781)
- Frederick Charles Reinhold, operatic bass (died 1815)
- Marguerite Morel, Ballerina, actress and singer.

February 12 – Benjamin Schmolck, Lutheran hymn-writer (born 1672)
September 22
- Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, composer (born 1667)
- Francesco Mancini, composer and music teacher (born 1672)
December 18 – Antonio Stradivari, violin-maker (born 1644)