1788 in music

Events

• Antonio Salieri appointed Imperial Royal Kapellmeister by Emperor Joseph II of Austria.
• Domenico Cimarosa is invited to St Petersburg by the Empress Catherine II of Russia.

Opera

• Thomas Carter – The Constant Maid, or Poll of Plympton
• Luigi Cherubini – Ifigenia in Aulide
• Franz Danzi – Die Mitternachtsstunde
• Giovanni Paisiello – L'Amor Contrastato
• Antonio Salieri – Axur, Re d´Ormus (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Beaumarchais); Il Talismano (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Goldoni)
• Joseph Weigl – Il pazzo per forza

Classical music

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphonies 39 in E flat, 40 in G minor and 41 in C

Births

• February 10 – Johann Peter Pixis, composer (died 1874)
• August 20 – José Bernardo Alcedo, composer (died 1878)
• October 11 – Simon Sechter, composer (died 1867)
• date unknown – Brita Catharina Lidbeck, Swedish concert singer and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (died 1864)

Deaths

• January 15 – Gaetano Latilla, composer (b. 1711)
• March 29 – Charles Wesley, hymn-writer (b. 1707)
• April 12
  • Carl Joseph Toeschi, composer
  • Carlo Antonio Campioni, composer (b. 1720)
• April 15 – Giuseppe Bonno, composer (b. 1711)
• June 28 – Johann Christoph Vogel, composer
• July 14 – Johann Gottfried Müthel, composer (b. 1728)
• December 14 – Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, composer (b. 1714)
• December 12 – Joseph Gibbs, composer (b. 1699)
• date unknown – Antonin Kammel, violinist and composer (b. 1730)