See also: 1784 in music, other events of 1785, 1786 in music, list of years in music.

Events

• Composer Supply Belcher settles in Maine.

Classical Music

• William Boyce, Ten Voluntaries
• Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in D minor
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Concerto no 20 in D minor for Piano and Orchestra
  • Davidde penitente (oratorio)
  • String quartet, "Dissonantenkwartet"
• Ignace Pleyel, String Quartet

Opera

• Gaetano Andreozzi - Giasone e Medea
• Prosper-Didier Deshayes - Le Faux serment
• Johann Friedrich Reichardt - Artemisia
• Antonio Salieri - La Grotta di Trofonio

Births

• March 6 - Karol Kazimierz Kurpinski, composer
• March 19 - Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer
• April 4 - Bettina Brentano, composer
• April 19 - Alexandre Pierre Francois Boely, composer
• September 25 - George Frederic Pinto, composer
• November 2 - Frederic Kalkbrenner and Johann Leopold Fuchs, composers
• unknown date - Johann Christoph, operatic tenor

Deaths

• January 3 - Baldassare Galuppi
• February 19 - Johann Christoph Richter, composer
• May 9 - Franz Xaver Schnitzer, composer
• May 10 - Etienne Joseph Floquet, composer
• May 15 - Karel Blazej Kopriva, composer
• June 5 - Gottfried August Homilius, composer
• June 6 - Johann Michael Demmler, composer
• June 25 - Pierre Talon, composer
• October 24 - Jean-Jacques Robson, composer
• November 19 - Bernard de Bury, composer
• December 8 - Antonio Maria Mazzoni, composer
• December 29 - Johann Heinrich Rolle