1703 in music
# 1703 in music

The year 1703 in music involved some significant events.

## Events

* January – Johann Sebastian Bach is appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar, his first such professional appointment, although probably including menial duties.
* by July – George Frideric Handel takes a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt.
* 14 August – J. S. Bach accepts the post of organist at the New Church, Arnstadt.
* September – Antonio Vivaldi, newly ordained as a priest, is appointed maestro di violino (master of violin) at the Ospedale della Pietà orphanage in Venice, for which he begins teaching and composing.
* ca. December – Alessandro Scarlatti becomes maestro di cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
* Nicolas Bernier publishes his first cantatas, the earliest in the French language.

## Classical music

* Henricus Albicastro – 6 Violin Sonatas, Op.5
* Johann Sebastian Bach
   * Concerto and Fugue in C minor, BWV 909
   * Denket doch, ihr Menschenkinder, BWV 1122
   * Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst, BWV 1123
   * Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 1124
   * O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 1125
* Giovanni Bononcini – Proteo sul Reno
* Sébastien de Brossard
   * Abraham ou le sacrifice d'Isaac
   * Judith ou la mort d'Holopherne
* Antonio Caldara – La castità al cimento
* André Campra – Motets, Livre 3
* Gaspard Corrette – Messe du 8e Ton pour l’Orgue
* François Couperin – Quatre versets d'un motet (sacred music)
* George Frideric Handel – Keyboard Sonata in C major, HWV 577
* Christian Liebe – Machet die Tore weit
* Louis Marchand – Pièces de clavecin, Livre 2
* James Paisible - Six sonatas of two parts for two flutes, Op. 1
* Andrew Parcham – Recorder Sonata in G major
* Alessandro Scarlatti – S. Casimiro, re di Polonia
* Andreas Heinrich Schultze – 6 Recorder Sonatas

## Opera

* Antonio Caldara
   * Farnace
   * Gli equivoci del sembiante
* Francesco Gasparini – Amor della patria
* Antonio Quintavalle – Il trionfo d'amore
* Domenico Scarlatti – Il Giustino

## Musical theater

* William Corbett – As You Find It

## Births

* 20 January – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, composer and violinist (died 1741)
* 29 January – Carlmann Kolb, priest, organist and composer (died 1765)
* date unknown
   * Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (died 1777)
   * John Frederick Lampe, musician (died 1751)
   * John Travers, organist and composer (died 1758)
   * Johann Gottlieb Graun, German Baroque/Classical era composer and violinist (died 1771)

## Deaths

* March 31 – Johann Christoph Bach, organist and composer (born 1642)
* September 14 – Gilles Jullien, composer and organist (born 1639)
* October 3 – Alessandro Melani, composer (b. 1639
* November 30 – Nicolas de Grigny, organist and composer (born 1672)
* probable – Jacek Różycki, composer (born c.1635)
