1659 in music

Last updated December 18, 2025

The year 1659 in music involved some significant events.

Events

Final printing of Parthenia , the first printed collection of music for keyboard in Britain.^[1]
Fray García de San Francisco founds a Catholic mission in what is now El Paso, Texas, making him perhaps the first music teacher in the future United States.^[2]

Publications

Giovanni Battista Granata – Soavi concenti di sonate musicali per la chitarra spagnuola..., a collection of guitar music, published in Bologna
Anthoni van Noordt – Tabulatuur-boeck van psalmen en fantasyen (Tablature-book of psalms and fantasies), a collection of organ music, published in Amsterdam
Christopher Simpson – The Division Viol, a set of practical instructions, published in London
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer – Duodena Selectarum Sonatarum

Classical music

Georg Arnold – Canzoni ariae et sonatae, Op.3
Robert Cambert – Pastorale d'Issy (incidental music)^[3]
Maurizio Cazzati – Trio Sonatas, Op.18
Jean-Baptiste Lully
- Ballet de la Raillerie, LWV 11
- Ballet de Toulouse, LWV 13
Barbara Strozzi – Diporti di Euterpe, Op.7

Opera

Antonio Bertali – Il rè Gelidoro
Robert Cambert – Pastorale d'Issy

Births

January 17 – Antonio Veracini, violinist and composer
March 6 – Salomo Franck, librettist for Bach Cantatas
August 10 – Sybrandt van Noordt Jr., composer
September 10 – Henry Purcell, composer
October 22 – Georg Ernst Stahl, lyricist
October 28 – Nicholas Brady, lyricist
date unknown
- Matteo Goffriller, cello maker
- Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, composer

Deaths

April 15 – Simon Dach, hymn-writer (born 1605)
September 27 – Andreas Tscherning, lyricist (born 1611)
October 27 – Giovanni Francesco Busenello, opera librettist
date unknown – Vinzenz Fux, composer (born c. 1606)

References

↑ Parthenia, The Harrow Replicas, Chiswick Press, London 1942
↑ Burk, Meierhoff and Phillips, pg. 50
↑ Johnson, Victoria, Backstage at the Revolution: How the Royal Paris Opera Survived the End of the Old Regime (University of Chicago Press, 2008), p.102

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[1] Parthenia, The Harrow Replicas, Chiswick Press, London 1942

[2] Burk, Meierhoff and Phillips, pg. 50

[3] Johnson, Victoria, Backstage at the Revolution: How the Royal Paris Opera Survived the End of the Old Regime (University of Chicago Press, 2008), p.102

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