1747 in music

Events

April 30 – Possible premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's last St Mark Passion pastiche (BC D 5) at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. In addition to two movements by Bach, he incorporates seven arias from George Frideric Handel's Brockes Passion HWV 48 into the work.^{[dubious – discuss]}
October 4 – Schlosstheater Schönbrunn opens.
Johann Sebastian Bach is presented to King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam; the king plays a theme for Bach and challenges the musician to improvise a six-part fugue based on it.
Luigi Boccherini goes to Rome to study the cello.

Maria Teresa Agnesi – Il restauro d'Arcadia (cantata)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Trio Sonata in F major, H.576
Johann Sebastian Bach
- Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, BWV 769
- Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079 (the Musical Offering)
William Boyce – 12 Trio Sonatas
Antoine Forqueray – Pièces de viole mises en pièces de clavecin (posthumously published)
George Frideric Handel – Judas Maccabeus (oratorio)
Jean-Marie Leclair – 6 Duos for 2 Violins, Op. 12
Jean-Philippe Rameau – La Dauphine (harpsichord piece).
Giuseppe Sammartini – 6 Concerti Grossi, Op. 5
Giuseppe Tartini – L'arte del arco (first set of 17 variations on a theme from Corelli's Op. 5) (attribution to Tartini in question)

February – Narciso Casanovas, Spanish composer (died 1799)
March 29 – Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German organist and composer (died 1822)
March 31 – Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, musician and composer (died 1800)
June 24 – John O'Keeffe, Irish librettist (died 1833)
June 26 – Leopold Kozeluch, prolific composer and teacher (died 1818)
July 23 – Faustino Arévalo, hymnographer (died 1824)
September 22 – Józef Wybicki, composer and poet (died 1822)
October 26 – Giovanni Mane Giornovichi, violinist and composer (died 1804)
November 24 – Felice Alessandri, Italian composer (died 1798)
date unknown
- Narciso Casanovas, Spanish monk and composer
- Michael Ehregott Grose, Danish organist and composer (died 1795)
- François Tourte, maker of violin bows (died 1835)