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.^[1]
• by July – George Frideric Handel takes a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt.^[2]
• 14 August – J. S. Bach accepts the post of organist at the New Church, Arnstadt.^[3]
• 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.^[4]
• 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^[5]
• 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)^[6]
• date unknown
  • Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (died 1777)^[7]
  • 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)^[8]
• 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)^[9]
• probable – Jacek Różycki, composer (born c.1635)