1640 in music explained

Events

• January 21 – Italian: [[Salmacida Spolia]], the final royal masque of the Caroline era, is performed at Whitehall Palace. The work features music by composer Lewis Richard.

Publications

Music

• Agostino Agazzari – Latin: Musicum encomium, divini nominis, simplicibus... (Rome: Vincenzo Blanco)
• Angelo Michele Bartolotti – Italian: Libro primo di chitarra spagnola, published in Florence
• Scipione Dentice – Second book of Italian: madrigali spirituali for five voices (Naples: Ottavio Beltrano)
• Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger – Italian: Libro quarto d'intavolatura di chitarrone (Rome)

Theory

• Pietro Della Valle – Italian: Della musica dell'età nostra che non è punto inferiore, anzi è migliore di quella dell'età passata (About the Music of our Time, which is not Worse but Better than that of Previous Ages)

Classical music

• Claudio Monteverdi – Italian: [[Selva morale e spirituale]], published in Venice

Opera

• Francesco Cavalli – Italian: [[Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne]]
• Benedetto Ferrari – Italian: Il pastor regio, premiered in Venice
• Claudio Monteverdi – Italian: [[Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria]]

Births

• January 5 – Paolo Lorenzani, composer (died 1713)
• April 4 – Gaspar Sanz, Spanish priest and composer (d. 1710)
• August 8 – Amalia Catharina, German poet and composer (d. 1697)
• November 4 – Carlo Mannelli, Italian violinist, castrato singer and composer (d. 1697)
• probable – Antonia Bembo, singer and composer (d. c. 1720)

Deaths

• February 12 – Michael Altenburg, composer and theologian (born 1584)
• April 10  - Agostino Agazzari, Sienese composer and music theorist (born 1578)
• June – Peter Hasse, German organist and composer (b. c. 1585)
• June 29 – John Adson, musician and composer (born c. 1587)
• November – Giles Farnaby, virginalist and composer (born 1563)
• Adriana Basile, Italian composer (b. 1580)
• Francisca Duarte, Portuguese singer (b. 1595)