1685 in music

Events

• The father of Georg Philipp Telemann dies, leaving his widow to bring up the children.
• Antonio Stradivari makes the ex Arma Senkrah violin.
• John Blow is recorded among the private musicians of King James II of England.
• The 17-year-old François Couperin becomes organist at St Gervais in Paris.
• Giovanni Legrenzi becomes maestro di cappella at St Mark's Cathedral, Venice.

  Published popular music

Classical music

• Giovanni Bononcini – 12 Sinfonie, Op. 3
• Cristofaro Caresana – Dixit Dominus
• Arcangelo Corelli – Op. 2, 12 trio sonatas
• Le Sieur de Machy – Pieces de Violle
• Nicolas Gigault – Livre de musique pour l'orgue
• Nicolas Lebègue – Livre d'orgue No.3
• Jean-Baptiste Lully
• *Idylle sur le Paix, LWV 68
• *Ballet du temple de la paix, LWV 69
• Johann Christoph Pezel – Fünfstimmige blasende Music
• Henry Purcell – My heart is inditing, first performed at the coronation of King James II
• Alessandro Scarlatti – Il martirio di S. Teodosia

  Opera

• John Blow – Venus and Adonis
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier
• *La Couronne de fleurs
• *Les arts florissants
• Giuseppe Fabrini – La Genefieva
• Jean-Baptiste Lully – Roland

  Births

• March 5 – George Frideric Handel, composer
• March 31 – Johann Sebastian Bach, composer
• June 23 – Antonio Maria Bernacchi, castrato singer
• June 30 – John Gay, poet, author of The Beggar's Opera
• September 20 – Giuseppe Matteo Alberti, composer and violinist
• October 26 – Domenico Scarlatti, composer
• December 12 – Lodovico Giustini, early composer for piano

  Deaths

• March 31 – Juan Hidalgo de Polanco, harpist and composer
• July 4 or – George Jeffreys, composer
• September 22 – Ignazio Albertini, Italian musician and composer
• date unknown
• *Jean-Baptiste Boësset, French composer
• *Yatsuhashi Kengyo, Japanese musician and composer