This is a list of music-related events in 1802.

Events

• January 9 – The Harmonic Society of Philadelphia is founded, with native composer Andrew Law as its president.^[1]
• January 20 – Luigi Boccherini receives a pension from Joseph Bonaparte.^[1]
• February 15 – Muzio Clementi publishes the second volume of his Practical Harmony.^[1]
• March 19 – Composer François-Adrien Boieldieu marries dancer Clotilde Mafleuray.^[1]
• April 30 – Louis Spohr begins his violin studies under Franz Eck.^[1]
• May 5
  • Composer Giovanni Paisiello, recently arrived in Paris, meets his host, Napoleon, for the first time.^[1]
  • Composers Jan Ladislav Dussek and Louis Spohr are introduced by Herr Kiekhöver in Hamburg.
• July 20 – The chapel created by Napoleon in the Tuileries is officially opened, with Giovanni Paisiello as its musical director.^[1]
• August 15 – Luigi Cherubini, Étienne-Nicolas Méhul, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode and Nicolò Isouard go into business as publishers of their own music.^[1]
• October 6 – Ludwig van Beethoven writes to his brother Carl from Heiligenstadt, in despair over his increasing deafness.^[1]
• Simon Mayr becomes maestro di cappella at Bergamo Cathedral.^[2]

Publications

• Charles-Simon Catel – Traité d’harmonie (Paris: l'Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique)
• Frédéric Duvernoy – Méthod pour le Cor (Mme Le Roi, Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique)
• Johann Nikolaus Forkel – On Johann Sebastian Bach’s Life, Art, and Work: For Patriotic Admirers of True Musical Art^[3] (Leipzig: Hoffmeister und Kühnel)
• John Gunn – An Essay Theoretical and Practical (London: Preston, for the author)
• Christian Kalkbrenner – Histoire de la Musique (Paris: Amand Kœnig)
• Heinrich Christoph Koch – Musikalisches Lexikon (Frankfurt am Main: August Hermann der Jüngere)
• Jean-Xavier Lefèvre – Méthode de clarinette (Paris: Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique)
• Georg Joseph Vogler – Handbuch zur Harmonielehre (Prague: K. Barth)

Classical music

• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Second Symphony^[4]
  • 6 Ländler, WoO 15
  • Bagatelle in C Major, WoO 54
  • "No, Non Tubarti", WoO 92a
  • "Ne' giorni tuoi felici", WoO 93
  • "Graf, Graf, Liebster Graf" WoO 101
  • 3 Piano Sonatas, Op. 31
  • 6 Variations in F Major, Op. 34
  • Eroica Variations, Op. 35
• Matthieu Frédéric Blasius – Clarinet Concerto No. 1
• Giuseppe Maria Cambini – Wind Quintet Nos.1–3
• Muzio Clementi – 3 Piano Sonatas, Op. 40
• Jan Ladislav Dussek
  • Duo in F major, Op. 26
  • Piano Sonata No.17, Op. 43
  • Piano Sonatas Nos. 19–21, Op. 45
  • Piano Sonatas Nos. 22–23, Op. 47
• Emanuel Aloys Förster – 3 String Quartets, Op. 21
• Joseph Haydn – Harmoniemesse, his last major work ^[5]
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Piano Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and bass, Op. 87 (inspiration for Schubert's "Trout" quintet)^[6]
• Franz Krommer
  • Flute Concerto No.1, Op. 30
  • Concerto for 2 Clarinets in E-flat major, Op. 35^[7]
• Ignaz Pleyel – Symphonie concertante in F major, B.115
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Das Zauberschloss (singspiel)^[1]
• Louis Spohr - Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 1
• Anton Ferdinand Titz – 3 String Quartets
• Samuel Wesley – Symphony in B-flat^[1]
• Carl Friedrich Zelter – Sammlung kleiner Balladen und Lieder, Z.123

Opera

• Charles-Simon Catel – Sémiramis
• Michael Kelly – Urania^[8]
• Giovanni Simone Mayr – I misteri eleusini (premiered Jan. 6 in Milan)
• Etienne Nicolas Méhul – Le trésor supposé
• William Reeve – Family Quarrels (comic opera)
• Carl Maria Von Weber – Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn

Births

• February 7 – Johann Nepomuk Vogl, lyricist (died 1866)
• February 20 – Charles-Auguste de Bériot, composer and violinist (died 1870)
• February 25 – Georg Scheurlin, music publisher (died 1872)

• February 26 – Victor Hugo, librettist and poet (died 1885)
• March 3 – Adolphe Nourrit, operatic tenor (died 1839)
• March 5 – James Turle, editor and organist (died 1882)
• May 31
  • Eduard Grund, composer (died 1871)
  • Cesare Pugni, Italian composer (died 1870)
• July 3 – Joseph Labitzky, composer and conductor (died 1881)
• July 12 – Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens, composer^[9] (died 1852)
• July 15 – John Barnett, English composer (died 1890)
• July 24 – Alexandre Dumas, librettist and writer (died 1870)
• July 27 – Ida Henriette da Fonseca, alto, composer (died 1858)
• August 13 – Nikolaus Lenau, lyricist and poet (died 1850)
• August 23 – Manuel Inocêncio Liberato dos Santos, musician and composer (died 1887)
• August 28 – Karl Joseph Simrock, librettist and poet (died 1876)
• September 18 – Jean-Amédée Lefroid de Méreaux, composer (died 1874)
• September 19 – Lajos Kossuth, dedicatee and politician (died 1894)
• September 24 – Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, librettist and Lord Chief Justice (died 1880)
• October 7 – Bernhard Molique, composer (died 1869)
• October 10 – George Pope Morris, librettist and publisher (died 1864)
• date unknown
  • Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy, pianist and composer (died c. 1880)
  • Ureli Corelli Hill, conductor (died 1875)
  • George Alexander Lee, singer and composer (died 1851)
  • Marion Dix Sullivan, American composer (died 1860)
  • José Zapiola, conductor and composer (died 1885)

Deaths

• January 27 – Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, conductor and composer, 42
• March 7 – Johann Georg Witthauer, composer, 51
• April 10 – Charlotte Brent, operatic soprano, 67
• April 18 – Erasmus Darwin, lyricist and physician (born 1731)
• July 26 – Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux, painter and musician, 41 (yellow fever)^[10]
• July 28 – Giuseppe Sarti, composer, 72
• August 10 – Antonio Lolli, violinist and composer (born c. 1725)
• August 23 – Corona Schröter, singer, 51
• September 28 – Heinrich Harries, lyricist and pastor (born 1762)
• October 2 – Giuseppe Millico, castrato singer, composer and music teacher, 65
• October 22 – Samuel Arnold, composer and organist, 62