- Jan 5 Johann Schneider, German composer and pupil of Bach, dies at 85
- Jan 15 Gaetano Latilla, composer, dies at 77
- Jan 17 Alessio Prati, Italian composer, dies at 37
- Jan 31 Francesco Zannetti, Italian composer, dies at 50
- Feb 22 Franz Joseph Oehlschlagel, composer, dies at 63
- Mar 1 Orazio Mei, Italian composer, dies at 56
- Mar 29 Charles Wesley, hymn writer, dies
- Apr 12 Carl Joseph Toeschi, German composer, dies at 56
- Apr 12 Charles-Antoine Campion, Italian composer, dies at 67
- Apr 15 Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer, dies at 77
- Jun 28 Johann Christoph Vogel, German composer, dies at 32
- Jul 14 Johann Gottfried Müthel, German keyboard virtuoso and composer, dies at 60
- Sep 14 Theodore-Jean Tarade, French composer, dies at 56
- Sep 26 Francois Bainville, composer, dies at 63
- Oct 18 Jean-Guillain Cardon, composer, dies at 56
- Nov 1 Johann Samuel Schroeter, composer, dies
- Nov 15 Peregrinus Pogl, composer, dies at 77
- Dec 12 Joseph Gibbs, English composer and organist, dies at 88
- Dec 14 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer, dies at 74
- Dec 25 John Logan, Scottish conductor (Ode to the Cuckoo), dies at about 40