See also: 1788 in music, other events of 1789, 1790 in music, list of years in music.

Events

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart travels to Berlin.
• Joseph Haydn meets Maria Anna von Genzinger.
• Adalbert Gyrowetz arrives in Paris.
• Luigi Cherubini becomes music director for the Théâtre Monsieur.
• Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach becomes Kapellmeister at Berlin.
• Anna Storace appears in a London production of Giovanni Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
• Mozart writes to his fellow Freemason and benefactor, Puchberg, saying that next time they meet, he will tell him about Antonio Salieri’s plots "which, however, have completely failed".
• Ignaz Joseph Pleyel becomes Kapellmeister of Strasbourg Cathedral in succession to Franz Xaver Richter.

Classical Music

• Ludwig van Beethoven - Two Preludes through all twelve major keys for piano, opus 39
• Joseph Haydn - Symphony no 92 in G Major, "Oxford"
• William Crotch - The Captivity of Judah (oratorio)
• Leopold Anton Kozeluch - Concerto for Clarinet no 2 in E flat major

Opera

• Domenico Cimarosa - I Due Baroni
• André Grétry - Raoul Barbe-Bleue
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt - Brenno; Claudine von Villa Bella
• Antonio Salieri - Il Pastor fido; La Cifra; both with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
• Stephen Storace - The Haunted Tower

Births

• January 30 - George Augustus Kollmann, composer
• February 1 - Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard, composer
• February 8 - Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, composer
• February 15 - Friedrich Fesca, composer
• June 27 - Friedrich Silcher, composer
• September 1 - Franz Anton Adam Stockhausen, composer
• October 18 - Giovanni Tadolini, composer
• October 24 - Ramon Carnicer y Batlle, composer
• October 26 - Joseph Mayseder
• October 28 - Johann Schneider, composer
• November 13 - Martin de Ron, composer
• December 8 - John Fawcett, composer
• December 14 - Maria Agata Szymanowska, composer

Deaths

• January 1 - Christleib Siegmund Binder, composer
• January 2 - Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schavensee, composer
• January 20 - Johann Christoph Oley, composer
• February 2 - Armand-Louis Couperin, organist and composer (b. 1727)
• May 10 - Guillaume Gommaire Kennis, composer
• June 7 - Vaclav Jan Kopriva
• June 14 - Johann Wilhelm Hertel, composer (b. 1727)
• July 4 - Cláudio Manuel da Costa, poer and conductor (b. 1729)
• July 15 - Jacques Duphly, composer (b. 1715)
• September 11 - Luka Sorkočević, composer (b. 1734) (suicide)
• September 12 - Franz Xaver Richter, composer (b. 17009)
• October 24 - Joaquin de Oxinaga, composer
• date unknown - Minette, actress, singer and dancer (b. 1767) (killed in Haitian race riot)