# 1741 in music
## Events

* August 22–September 14 – George Frideric Handel composes his oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens, completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on September 6.
* October 2 – The Bull's Head Musical Society opens a Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, Ireland.
* November 18 – George Frideric Handel arrives in Dublin to give a series of concerts having tried out the Messiah privately en route in Chester.
* November 25 – Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin, the first female court musician at the French court, sells her official post to Bernard de Bury.
* Johann Friedrich Agricola arrives in Berlin to study musical composition under Johann Joachim Quantz.
* Antonio Vivaldi leaves Venice for Vienna, but dies shortly after his arrival.
* 19-year-old Jiří Antonín Benda is given the post of second violinist at the Berlin court of King Frederick II of Prussia.
* William Hogarth produces an engraving entitled The Enraged Musician.

## Classical music

* Girolamo Abos – Magnificat à quarto concertato con strum.
* Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
** Harpsichord Concerto in A major, H.411
** Symphony in G major, H.648
* Johann Sebastian Bach – Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
* Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – 6 Flute Sonatas, Op. 91
* Michel Corrette – Nouveau Livre de noëls
* Jean-Baptiste Dupuits – 6 Sonatas for Vielle and Harpsichord, Op. 3
* Willem de Fesch – 8 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 10
* Baldassare Galuppi – Confitebor tibi Domine in C major, B.II.2
* Christoph Graupner
** Trio Sonata in E major, GWV 208
** Flute Sonata in G major, GWV 708
* George Frideric Handel
** Messiah composed.
** Quel fior che all'alba ride, HWV 192 (duet)
** Overture in D major, HWV 424
* Johann Adolph Hasse – 12 Flute Concertos, Op. 3
* Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg – Pièces de Clavecin
* Jean-Philippe Rameau – Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts
* Georg Philipp Telemann – 24 Odes, TWV 25:86-109

## Opera

* Tomaso Albinoni – Artamene
* Andrea Bernasconi – Demofoonte
* Baldassare Galuppi – Penelope
* Christoph Willibald Gluck – Artaserse
* Karl Heinrich Graun – Rodelinda regina de' Longobardi, GraunWV B:I:6
* George Frideric Handel – Deidamia, HWV 42 (composed 1740)
* Johann Adolph Hasse – Numa Pompilio
* Niccolò Jommelli – Semiramide riconosciuta
* Giovanni Battista Lampugnani – Arsace

## Publications

* Johann Sebastian Bach – Clavier-Übung IV (Nuremberg: Balthasar Schmid), now known as the Goldberg Variations.
* The Cocquiel Manuscript, B-Br Ms II 3326 Mus, containing sacred music by various composers (including Jacob La Fosse and Abraham van den Kerckhoven)

## Methods and theory writings

* Michel Corrette – Méthode pour apprendre le violoncelle, Op. 24
* Antoine Terrasson – Historique sur la vielle
* Carlo Tessarini – Gramatica di musica

## Births

* February 8 – André Grétry, composer (died 1813)
* February 9
** Joseph Corfe (died 1820)
** Henri-Joseph Rigel, composer (died 1799)
* April 17 – Johann Gottlieb Naumann (died 1801)
* May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, composer (died 1801)
* July 17 – Suzette Defoye, opera singer and ballerina
* July 27 – François-Hippolyte Barthélémon, violinist and composer (died 1808)
* August 31 – Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, composer (died 1816)
* September 11 – Johann Jakob Engel (died 1802)
* September 25 – Wenzel Pichl, singer, violinist and composer (died 1805)
* November 27 – Jean-Pierre Duport (died 1818)
* date unknown
** Franz Xaver Hammer, gambist, cellist and composer (died 1817)
** Giacomo Rust (died 1786)
** Anna Brita Wendelius, singer and member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music (died 1804).

## Deaths

* January 5 – Ann Turner Robinson, English soprano
* February 13 – Johann Fux, composer and theorist (born 1660)
* March 17 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (born 1671)
* June 21 – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (born 1703)
* July 28 – Antonio Vivaldi, composer (born 1678)
* August – David Owen, Welsh harpist (born 1712)
* August 24 – Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard, French operatic baritone (born 1669)
* September 3 (or after) – Carlo Francesco Cesarini (born 1666)
* September 7 – Henri Desmarets, French composer of sacred music (born 1661)
* probable – Francesco Scarlatti, composer (born 1666)