1740 in music

Events

• Johann Sebastian Bach begins to lose his sight.
• Carl Heinrich Graun becomes Kapellmeister to Frederick II of Prussia. Johann Joachim Quantz becomes Frederick's flute teacher.
• Ferdinando Bertoni arrives in Bologna where he becomes a pupil of Giovanni Battista Martini.

Classical music

• Thomas Arne – Alfred (masque), including the song, "Rule Britannia"
• George Frideric Handel – Op. 6, 12 concerti grossi

Opera

• Bernardo Aliprandi – Semiramide riconosciuta
• Vincenzo Ciampi – La Beatrice
• Baldassare Galuppi – Gustavo primo re di Svezia
• Maurice Greene – The Judgement of Hercules
• Luca Antonio Predieri – Zenobia

Births

• February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, poet and composer (died 1795)
• May 9 – Giovanni Paisiello, composer (died 1816)
• August 10 – Samuel Arnold (composer), composer (died 1802)
• November 4 – Augustus Montague Toplady, hymn-writer (died 1778)
• December Elisabeth Olin, operatic soprano (died 1828)
• unknown date
  • John Antes, composer (died 1811)
  • Sir Peter Beckford, English peer (died 1811), patron of Muzio Clementi
  • Samuel Webbe, composer (died 1816)
• probable – Anna Bon, singer and composer

Deaths

• January 5 – Antonio Lotti, composer (born 1667)
• January 13 – William Turner, singer and composer (born 1651)
• January 25 – Geminiano Giacomelli, composer (born 1692)
• February 9 – Vincent Lübeck, organist and composer (born 1654)
• October Poul Christian Schindler, composer (born 1648)
• unknown date
• October 14 – Domenico Alberti, composer (born c.1710)
  • Edward Purcell, organist (born 1689)
• probable – François Dieupart, French composer (born after 1667)