# 1740 in music
## Events

* Johann Sebastian Bach begins to lose his sight.
* Carl Heinrich Graun becomes Kapellmeister to Frederick II of Prussia. Johann Joachim Quantz becomes Frederick's flute teacher.
* Ferdinando Bertoni arrives in Bologna where he becomes a pupil of Giovanni Battista Martini.
* December 26 – The Teatro Regio (Turin) is inaugurated with a performance of Francesco Feo's opera Arsace.

## Classical music

* Thomas Arne – Alfred (masque), including the song, "Rule Britannia"
* Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
** Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in F major, H.408
** Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.410
** Flute Sonata in A minor, H.555
* Christoph Graupner – Violin Sonata in G minor, GWV 711
* George Frideric Handel – L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, HWV 55
* Giuseppe Tartini – Violin Concerto in C major, D.1
* Georg Philipp Telemann – 6 Overtures for Clavier, TWV 32:5–10 (Published ca. 1742 in Nuremberg, as VI Ouverturen nebst zween Folgesätzen)

## Opera

* Bernardo Aliprandi – Semiramide riconosciuta
* Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi – La Beatrice
* Baldassare Galuppi – Gustavo primo re di Svezia
* Maurice Greene – The Judgement of Hercules
* George Frideric Handel – Imeneo, HWV 41 (first performed, composed in 1738)
* Nicola Porpora – Il trionfo di Camilla
* Luca Antonio Predieri – Zenobia

## Publications

* Thomas Arne – Comus (London: William Smith). First performed 1738.
* Jean-Baptiste Barrière – 6 Cello Sonatas, Livre 4 (Paris: Composer) (Likely composed 1737–1740)
* Michel Blavet – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 3
* Louis de Caix d'Hervelois – Pièces de viole, Livre 4
* Esprit Philippe Chédeville – 6 Sonatilles galantes, Op. 6
* Nicolas Chédeville – Les Deffis ou l'étude amusante, Op. 9
* Antoine Dauvergne
** 6 Trio Sonatas, Op. 1
** 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 2
* Michel Richard Delalande – Noëls en Trio avec un Carillon, S.173.24 (composed 1725, published posthumously)
* George Frideric Handel
** Op. 6, 12 Concerti Grossi
** "A Second Set of Six Concertos" (London: John Walsh) (arranged for organ, No. 3–6 are also in Op. 6)
* James Oswald – A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes
* Johan Helmich Roman – Assaggio in G minor, BeRI 314 (Stockholm: Composer) likely composed earlier.
* Carlo Tessarini – 6 Allettamenti da camera, Op. 3 (there is another Op. 3 by Tessarini, a set of 10 violin concerti)
* Antonio Vivaldi – 6 Cello Sonatas, Le Clerc Op. 14 (Paris: Le Clerc le Cadet)
* Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer – Concerti Armonici (composed between 1725–1740, originally published anonymously and attributed to various composers)

## Methods and theory writings

* Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre à jouër la flûtte
* John Frederick Lampe – The Art of Musick
* Johann Mattheson – Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte

## Births

* February 3 – Guillaume Lasceux (died 1831)
* February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, poet and composer (died 1795)
* February 15 – Ernst Eichner (died 1777)
* May 9 – Giovanni Paisiello, composer (died 1816)
* July 26 – Louis-Augustin Richer, classical singer, singing master and composer (died 1819)
* August 10 – Samuel Arnold (composer), (died 1802)
* October 7 – Samuel Webbe (died 1816)
* November 4 – Augustus Montague Toplady, hymn-writer (died 1778)
* December – Elisabeth Olin, operatic soprano (died 1828)
* unknown date
** John Antes, composer (died 1811)
** Sir Peter Beckford, English peer (died 1811), patron of Muzio Clementi
** Samuel Webbe, composer (died 1816)
* probable – Anna Bon, singer and composer

## Deaths

* January 5 – Antonio Lotti, composer (born 1667)
* January 13 – William Turner, singer and composer (born 1651)
* January 25 – Geminiano Giacomelli, composer (born 1692)
* February 9 – Vincent Lübeck, organist and composer (born 1654)
* February 25 – Dietrich Bernhard Ludewig (born 1707)
* October 14 – Domenico Alberti, composer (born c.1710)
* unknown date
** André Bouys, painter and copyist (born c.1656)
** Edward Purcell, organist (born 1689)
** Poul Christian Schindler, composer (born 1648)
* probable – François Dieupart, French composer (born after 1667)