# 1801 in music
## Events

* January 12 – Domenico Cimarosa is buried at Chiesa di Sant’Angelo, Venice, with a requiem mass performed by local musicians.
* March 28 – Ludwig van Beethoven's ballet The Creatures of Prometheus (Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus) premières in Vienna's Burgtheater.
* April 12 – Théâtre Feydeau in Paris closes down as a result of its director's other commitments.
* April 21 – The Teatro Nuovo in Trieste is inaugurated with a performance of Johann Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.
* April 24 – Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons is premièred as Die Jahreszeiten in Vienna for its aristocratic patrons at the Palais Schwarzenberg; it has its public première on May 19 at the Redoutensaal.
* December 27 – Nineteen-year-old Niccolò Paganini becomes first violin of Lucca's national orchestra.
* Publication of Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte by Muzio Clementi in London.
* Probable publication of A Favorite Collection of Tunes with Variations Adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin, or Flute by William Wright in Newcastle upon Tyne with contributions by John Peacock (piper).

## Published popular music

* "'Twas in the Solemn Midnight Hour", composed and sung by Mrs Bland

## Classical music

* Ludwig van Beethoven
** Violin Sonata No. 4, Op. 23
** Violin Sonata No. 5, Op. 24
** Piano Sonata No. 12, Op. 26
** Piano Sonata No. 13 & No. 14 (Moonlight), Op. 27
** Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 28
** String Quintet, Op. 29
** The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43
* Johann Baptist Cramer – Piano Sonatas, Op. 25
* Jan Ladislav Dussek
** Two Piano Sonatas C.184-5
** Piano Concerto, Op. 49
* John Field – Three Piano Sonatas Op. 1
* Franz Joseph Haydn
** Mass in B-flat major, Hob.XXII:13
** The Spirit's Song, Hob.XXVIa:41
** The Seasons
* Franz Krommer – 3 String Quartets, Op. 19
* John Marsh – Symphony no. 30 in E minor
* Pavel Vranický – Ballet Das Urteil des Paris
* Johann Baptist Wanhal – Clarinet Sonata in C major
* Joseph Woelfl – Duet for Cello and Piano, Op. 31
* Anton Wranitzky – 3 String Quintets, Op. 8
* Carl Friedrich Zelter – 12 Lieder am Clavier zu singen, Z.122

## Opera

* Domenico Cimarosa – Artemisia
* Simon Mayr – Ginevra di Scozia
* Étienne Méhul – L'irato
* Rodolphe Kreutzer – Astyanax
* Marcos Portugal – La morte di Semiramide
* Johan Rudolf Zumsteeg – Das Pfauenfest

## Methods and theory writings

* Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen – Anleitung zum Harfenspiel
* André Ernest Modeste Grétry – Méthode simple pour apprendre à préluder (Paris: l'imprimerie de la République)
* Johann Christian Kittel – Der angehende praktische Organist (Erfurt: Beyer und Maring)
* Giovanni Punto – Étude ou Exercice Journalier (Offenbach: Johann André)
* Karl Zelter – Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch (Berlin: Johann Friedrich Unger)

## Births

* January 11 – John Lodge Ellerton, composer (died 1873)
* January 29 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, composer (died 1857)
* February 1 – Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, Swedish Composer (died 1878)
* February 21 – Jan Kalivoda, composer
* February 22 – William Barnes, lyricist and writer (died 1886)
* March 11 – Frédéric Bérat, composer and songwriter (died 1855)
* March 19 – Salvatore Cammarano, Italian librettist (died 1852)
* March 26 – Sophie Daguin, ballerina and choreographer (died 1881)
* April 12 – Joseph Lanner, composer (died 1843)
* June 20 – Gustavo Carulli, composer (died 1876)
* June 25 – Antonio D'Antoni, composer and conductor (died 1859)
* August 1 – Karl Johann Philipp Spitta, librettist and poet (died 1859)
* September 13 – Stefan Witwicki, lyricist and poet (died 1847)
* October 17 – Alessandro Curmi, pianist and composer (died 1857)
* October 23 – Albert Lortzing, composer (died 1851)
* November 3 – Vincenzo Bellini, composer (died 1835)
* November 27 – Aleksandr Varlamov, Russian composer (died 1848)

## Deaths

* January 11 – Domenico Cimarosa, composer, 51 (probable stomach cancer)
* March 2 – Charles-Albert Demoustier, lyricist and writer (born 1760)
* March 14 – Christian Friedrich Penzel, composer, 63
* March 21 – Andrea Luchesi, composer, 59
* March 25 – Friedrich von Hardenberg, librettist and poet (born 1772)
* May 13 – Bartholomeus Ruloffs, Dutch conductor and composer, 59
* May 14 – Johann Ernst Altenburg, composer, organist and trumpeter, 66
* August 31 – Nicola Sala, composer and music theorist, 88
* October 23 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann, conductor and composer, 60
* November – Thomas Augustine Geary, Irish composer (born 1773)
* November 9 – Carl Stamitz, composer, 56
* December 10 – Jonathan Battishill, composer of church music, 63