1786 in music

See also: 1785 in music, other events of 1786, 1787 in music, list of years in music.

Events

• In Britain, William Parsons succeeds John Stanley as Master of the King's Musick.
• In Benares, Jiwan Shah and Francis Fowke conduct an experiment comparing the pitch of the harpsichord with that of a traditional Indian instrument
• America's oldest singing society was founded on November 7 as the Stoughton Musical Society.

Classical music

• Der Apotheker und der Doktor, singspiel by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
• Mozart's piano concertos nos. 23 and 24
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony no. 82 ("Bear")
• Symphony no.38 in D 'Prague'. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Opera

• Der Schauspieldirektor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Le Faucon by Dmitri Stepanovich Bortniansky
• Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) was first performed in Vienna. Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.
• Les Horaces and Prima la musica e poi le parole by Antonio Salieri
• Armida e Rinaldo – Giuseppe Sarti

Published popular music

• First edition of Elias Mann's Worcester Collection

Births

• January 3 – Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider, composer
• April 18 – Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, composer
• July 25 – Giacomo Cordella, composer
• September 11 – Friedrich Kuhlau
• November 7 – Francisco Andrevi y Castellar, composer
• November 10 – Carl Eberwein, composer
• November 18 (or December 18) – Carl Maria von Weber
• November 18 – Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, Professor of Music at Oxford
• December 20 – Pietro Raimondi, composer

Deaths

• January 14 – Michael Arne
• February 20 – Johann Wolfgang Kleinknecht, composer
• March 7 -Frantisek Benda, composer
• May 19 – John Stanley
• July 22 – Vaclav Kalous, composer
• July 29 – Franz Asplmayr, composer
• August 7 – Friedrich Schwindl, composer
• August 17 – King Frederick II of Prussia, amateur composer
• October 6 – Antonio Maria Gaspare Sacchini, composer
• October 19 – Pietro Alessandro Pavona, composer