# 1738 in music
## Events

* January – Antonio Vivaldi conducts a festival to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Schouwburg theater.
* 4 May – Foundation of the Imperial Ballet School at Saint Petersburg, with Jean-Baptiste Landé as its principal.
* Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, having completed a law degree, is hired as a court musician by Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great (Bach will remain in Frederick's service until 1768).

## Classical music

* Johann Sebastian Bach
** Kyrie–Gloria masses, BWV 233–236
** Harpsichord Concerto No.3 in D major, BWV 1054
* Francesco Durante – Messa piccola di requiem in G
* George Frideric Handel – La bianca rosa, HWV 160c
* Leonardo Leo
** Cello Concerto in A major, L.50
** Cello Concerto in D minor, L.60
* Jan Dismas Zelenka – Miserere, ZWV 57

## Opera

* Thomas Arne – Comus
* Antonio Bioni – Girita
* François Francoeur and François Rebel – Le Ballet de la paix (Paris, Opéra, 29 May)
* George Frideric Handel
** Faramondo
** Saul (composed, first performed 1739)
** Serse (London, 15 April)
* Johann Adolph Hasse – Irene
* Giovanni Battista Pescetti – La Conquista del Vello D'Oro
* Nicola Porpora – Carlo il Calvo
* Giovanni Porta – Ifigenia in Aulide
* Francesco Maria Veracini – Rosalinda

## Publications

* Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – L'Automne, Op. 5, No. 3 (extract, reprinted from Cantates françoises, Op. 5 [1724])
* Josse Boutmy – Pièces de clavecin, Livre 1
* Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello – 12 Concertos, Op. 1
* Michele Corrette
** L'école d'Orphée, Op. 18 (Paris)
** Les délices de la solitude, Op. 20 (Paris)
* George Frideric Handel – 6 Organ Concertos, Op.4 (London: John Walsh)
* Alessandro Marcello – La cetra di Eterio Stinfalico, 6 concertos for 2 oboes or flutes, strings, and basso continuo (Augsburg, [approximate year])
* Domenico Scarlatti
** Essercizi per Gravicembalo, K.1-30
** 42 Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, K.1-42 (introduction by Roseingrave)
* Giuseppe Sammartini – 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. 2
* Georg Philipp Telemann
** Fugues légères & petits jeux, TWV 30:21–26
** 18 Canons Mélodieux, TWV 40:118–123
** 6 Nouveaux quatuors en six suites: à une flûte traversiere, un violon, une basse de viole, où violoncel, et basse continuë. Paris: L'auteur, Vater, Boivin, et Le Clerc. ("Paris quartets" Nos. 7–12), TWV 43:D3, 43:a2, 43:G4, 43:h2, 43:A3, 43:e4
* Johann Gottfried Walther – Harmonisches Denck- und Danckmahl
* 6 Harpsichord Concertos and 4 Organ Fugues (Strasbourg: Jean Daniel Doulsecker) works by various and anonymous composers. Contains Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Fugue in F major F.36.

## Methods and theory writings

* Johann Philipp Eisel – Musicus autodidaktos

## Births

* April 17 – Philip Hayes, composer (died 1797)
* May – Jonathan Battishill, composer (died 1801)
* June 3 – Pierre Vachon, composer (died 1803)
* August 11 (baptized)– Anna Bon, composer (died after 1769)
* August 14 – Leopold Hofmann, composer (died 1793)
* October 26 – Louis-Charles-Joseph Rey, composer and cellist, (died 1811)
* November 15 – William Herschel, astronomer and composer (died 1822)
* December 14 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, composer (died 1814)
* date unknown
** Carlo Besozzi, oboist and composer (died 1791)
** Thomas Ebdon, organist and composer (died 1811)

## Deaths

* January 6 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer (born 1663)
* January 17 – Jean-François Dandrieu, harpsichordist, organist and composer (born c. 1682)
* March 25 – Turlough O'Carolan, harpist and composer (born 1670)
* July 20 – Tommaso Redi, composer (born c.1675)
* August 23 – Baron Anders von Düben, director of the Royal Swedish Orchestra (born 1673)
* August 29 – Georg Reutter, organist and composer (born 1656)
* September 23 – Carlo Agostino Badia, opera composer (born 1672)
* December 22 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, composer (born 1681)
* date unknown – José de Torres, composer (born 1665)