1743 in music

Events

• Johann Sebastian Bach examines the organ at the Johanniskirche, Leipzig
• March 23 – English premiere of Handel's Messiah in London
• 1743–1746 Bach revises his St Matthew Passion (two organs used again, but Viola da gamba still retained; Recitatives revised so that now only the vox Christi recitatives have sustained Continuo parts). No evidence of version being performed (version we know today).

Classical music

• George Frideric Handel
• Samson (oratorio)
• Semele (oratorio)

Opera

• Bernard de Bury – Les Caractères de la folie
• Baldassare Galuppi – Enrico

Births

• February 19 – Luigi Boccherini, composer (died 1805)
• May 21 – François Duval, dancer
• July 6 – Valentin Adamberger, operatic tenor (died 1804)
• September 30 – Christian Ehregott Weinlig, cantor and composer (died 1813)
• October 5 – Giuseppe Gazzaniga, composer (died 1818)
• October 10 – Marie-Madeleine Guimard, ballerina (died 1816)

Deaths

• February 1 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (born 1657)
• February 6 – Toussaint Bertin de la Doué, composer (born 1680)
• February 7 – Lodovico Giustini, composer (born 1685)
• March 16 – Jean-Baptiste Matho, composer (born 1663)
• July 12 – Johann Bernhard Bach (the younger), organist and composer (born 1700)
• September 14 – Georg von Bertouch, composer (born 1668)