1703 in music

The year 1703 in music involved some significant events.

Events

• Johann Sebastian Bach gets a job as a violinist and lackey at the lesser court in Weimar.
• Johann Sebastian Bach accepts post of Organist at the New Church in Arnstadt August 1703.
• Antonio Vivaldi starts composing for the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice.
• Alessandro Scarlatti becomes Maestro di Cappella at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
• George Frideric Handel gives up his legal studies at the University of Halle for a music course at Hamburg.
• Jakob Greber makes his London debut as a theatre composer.
• Nicolas Bernier publishes his first cantatas, the earliest in the French language.

Classical music

• Gaspard Corrette – Organ mass
• François Couperin – Quatre versets d'un motet (sacred music)

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)
• 27 October – Johann Gottlieb Graun, composer and violinist (died 1771)
• date unknown
  • Jean-Marie Leclair the younger, composer (died 1777)
  • John Frederick Lampe, musician (died 1751)
  • John Travers, organist and composer (died 1758)

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)