1754 in music explained

Events

• Composer Christoph Graupner loses his sight.
• Publication of Giuseppe Tartini's treatise Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia.
• Giovanni Paisiello goes to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studies under Francesco Durante.

Classical music

• Joseph Anton Xaver Auffmann – Triplex concentus organicus, seu III. concerti organici à octo instrumentis (3 organ concertos), Op. 1 (Augsburg)
• Michael Festing – Violin Sonatas (published posthumously)
• François-Joseph Gossec – Symphony No. 1
• John Jones – 8 Setts of Lessons for harpsichord (London)
• Pietro Locatelli – La foresta incantata (ballet)
• Pietro Domenico Paradisi – 12 Harpsichord Sonatas
• Joan Baptista Pla and Josep Pla – 6 Trio Sonatas
• Nicola Porpora
  • 6 duetti latini per la Passione di Gesù Cristo
  • 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 12
• John Stanley – Ten Voluntarys for organ or harpsichord, Op. 7 (London)

Opera

• Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi – Didone
• Nicola Conforto – Ezio
• Baldassare Galuppi – Il filosofo di campagna
• Christoph Willibald Gluck – Le Cinesi, Wq.18
• Johann Adolph Hasse – Artemisia
  • • Jean-Philippe Rameau Anacréon, RCT 30
  • La Naissance d'Osiris, RCT 48

Methods and theory writings

• Dom Philippe-Joseph Caffiaux – Histoire de la musique depuis l’Antiquité jusqu’en 1754
• Michel Corrette – Prototipes contenant des leçons d’accompagnement
• Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Historisch-Kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik
• Johann Mattheson – Plus Ultra
• Jean-Philippe Rameau – Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique, et sur son principe
• Giuseppe Tartini – Trattato di musica

Births

• March 15 – Silvestro Palma, opera composer (died 1834)
• May 2 – Vicente Martín y Soler, composer of opera and ballet (died 1806)
• May 12 – Franz Anton Hoffmeister, composer and music publisher (died 1812)
• June 21 – Caroline Louise von Klencke, librettist and poet (died 1802)
• July 15 – Jacob French, singing master and composer (died 1817)
• July 18 – Joseph Siegmund Bachmann, composer and organist (died 1825)
• August 28 – Peter Winter, opera composer (died 1825)
• September – Elizabeth Ann Linley, singer (died 1792)
• December 9 – Étienne Ozi, bassoonist and composer (died 1813)
  • December 20 – Joseph Schubert, violinist and composer (died 1837)
• date unknown
  • Hans Gram, organist and composer (died 1804)
  • Michel Yost, composer and clarinetist (died 1786)

Deaths

• May 16 – Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, composer and Kapellmeister (born 1677)
• June 22 – Nicolas Siret, organist, harpsichordist and composer (born 1663)
• October 6 – Adam Falckenhagen, lutenist and composer (born 1697)
• probable
  • Mlle Guédon de Presles, singer, composer and actress (date of birth unknown)
  • Seedo, German theatre composer working in Britain (born c.1700)