1640 in music

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{{Year nav topic5|1640|music}}

Events

January 21 – {{lang|it|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=

Agostino Agazzari – {{lang|la|Musicum encomium, divini nominis, simplicibus...}} (Rome: Vincenzo Blanco)
Angelo Michele Bartolotti – {{lang|it|Libro primo di chitarra spagnola}}, published in Florence
Scipione Dentice – Second book of {{lang|it|madrigali spirituali}} for five voices (Naples: Ottavio Beltrano)
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger – {{lang|it|Libro quarto d'intavolatura di chitarrone}} (Rome)

=Theory=

Pietro Della Valle – {{lang|it|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 – {{lang|it|Selva morale e spirituale}}, published in Venice

Opera

Francesco Cavalli – {{lang|it|Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne}}
Benedetto Ferrari – {{lang|it|Il pastor regio}}, premiered in Venice
Claudio Monteverdi – {{lang|it|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)
Adriana Basile, Italian composer (b. 1580)
Francisca Duarte, Portuguese singer (b. 1595)