1746 in music

List of years in music (table)
… 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 …
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Events

• April 8 Johann Sebastian Bach performs a copy he made of the Brockes Passion HWV 48 of George Frideric Handel at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.
• Elias Gottlob Haussmann completes his famous portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach
• 1746–1747 Bach adds two Chorale preludes (BWV 664 and 665) to his manuscript of the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes.

Classical music

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
  • Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.422
  • Harpsichord Concerto in C major, H.423
  • Viola da Gamba Sonata in D major, H.559
• Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Sechs Choräle von verschiedener Art
  • Canon in G major, BWV 1076
• Francesco Feo – S. Francesco di Sales (sacred oratorio) first performed
• Francesco Geminiani
  • 6 Cello Sonatas, Op. 5
  • 6 Concertos, Op.7
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – 6 Trio Sonatas, Wq.53
• Christoph Graupner – Ach Herr, mich armen Suender (cantata)
• Joannes de Gruytters – his carillon book.
• George Frideric Handel
  • Occasional Oratorio, HWV 62 with words by Newburgh Hamilton
  • Concerto in D major, HWV 335a (contributed to the Music for the Royal Fireworks)
• Niccolò Pasquali – Sonatas for two cellos
• Giovanni Benedetto Platti – 6 Harpsichord Sonatas, Op. 4 (parts of which have been attributed to Benedetto Marcello)
• Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer – Pièces de clavecin
• Rudolf Straube – 2 Lute Sonatas
• Giuseppe Tartini – 3 Violin Concertos, Libro 1

Opera

• Andrea Adolfati – La pace fra la virtù e la bellezza
• Thomas Arne – Neptune and Amphitrite
• Matteo Capranica – Alcibiade
• Carl Heinrich Graun – Demofoonte, GraunWV B:I:13
• Niccolò Jommelli – Didone abbandonata
• Jean-Marie Leclair – Scylla et Glaucus

Publications

• Burke Thumoth – 12 English and 12 Irish Airs with Variations (London: J. Simpson)
• Anonymous – The Compleat Tutor for the French Horn (London: John Simpson)

Methods and theory writings

• William Tans'ur – A New Musical Grammar

Births

• January 11 – František Adam Míča, Czech composer (died 1811)
• January 23 – Pierre-Ulric Dubuisson, translator and actor (died 1794)
• February 13 – Giuseppe Maria Cambini, Italian composer (died 1825)
• April 4 – Alexandre-Louis Robineau, librettist (died 1823)
• June 2– Wilhelm Cramer, composer and violinist (died 1799)
• June 3 (probable) – James Hook (composer), composer (died 1827)
• June 29 – Joachim Heinrich Campe, German librettist (died 1818)
• July 2 – Hartenack Otto Conrad Zinck, Danish composer (died 1832)
• August 21 – Ignaz Umlauf, Austrian composer (died 1796)
• September 3 – Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, librettist and poet (died 1797)
• September 20 – Christian Benjamin Uber, German composer (died 1812)
• September 26 – Giovanni Punto, composer and horn player (died 1803)
• October 4 – Domenico Corri, Italian composer (died 1825)
• October 7 – William Billings, American composer (died 1800)
• October 12 – Emerico Lobo de Mesquita, composer and collaborator (died 1805)
• October 22 – Hector Macneill, librettist and poet (died 1818)
• November 15 – Joseph Quesnel, composer (died 1809)
• December 19 – Venanzio Rauzzini, collector and opera singer (died 1810)
• December 21 – Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty, librettist and poet (died 1776)
• unknown date - Avdotya Mikhaylova, opera singer (died 1807)

Deaths

• March 16 – Jean Baptiste Matho, French composer (born 1663)
• March 30 – Jean-Joseph Fiocco, composer (b. 1686)
• May 15 – Giovanni Antonio Ricieri, composer
• August 27 – Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, German composer
• October 14 – Domenico Alberti, Italian composer (born c. 1700)
• December 6 – Grizel Baillie, librettist and composer (born 1665)
• December 10 – Teodorico Pedrini, priest, musician and composer (b. 1671)
• unknown date – Jean-Baptiste Malter, dancer (b. 1701)