1640 in music

List of years in music (table)
... 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 ... 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 ... 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650 ...
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Events

• January 21 – Salmacida Spolia, the final royal masque of the Caroline era, is performed at Whitehall Palace. The work features music by composer Lewis Richard.

Publications

Music

• Angelo Michele Bartolotti – Libro primo di chitarra spagnola, published in Florence
• Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger – Libro quarto d'intavolatura di chitarrone

Theory

• Pietro Della Valle – Della musica dell'età nostra che non è punto inferiore, anzi è migliore di quella dell'età passata (About the Music of our Time, which is not Worse but Better than that of Previous Ages)

Classical music

• Claudio Monteverdi – Selva morale e spirituale, published in Venice

Opera

• Francesco Cavalli - Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne
• Benedetto Ferrari – Il pastor regio, premiéred in Venice
• Claudio Monteverdi – Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria

Births

• January 5 – Paolo Lorenzani, composer (died 1713)
• April 4 – Gaspar Sanz, Spanish priest and composer (d. 1710)
• August 8 – Amalia Catharina, German poet and composer (d. 1697)
• November 4 – Carlo Mannelli, Italian violinist, castrato singer and composer (d. 1697)
• probable – Antonia Bembo, singer and composer (d. c. 1720)

Deaths

• February 12 – Michael Altenburg, composer and theologian (born 1584)
• April 10 – Agostino Agazzari, Sienese composer and music theorist (born 1578)
• June – Peter Hasse, German organist and composer (b. c. 1585)
• June 29 – John Adson, musician and composer (born c. 1587)
• November – Giles Farnaby, virginalist and composer (born 1563)