Wood-carver Grinling Gibbons arrives from Holland to begin an immensely successful career in England

19-year-old Alessandro Scarlatti has a great success in Rome with Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante, the first of his 115 operas

Young gentlewomen in Chelsea give the first performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

The first teacher of the virtuoso harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti is his father, Alessandro

In his opera La Caduta de' Decemviri, Alessandro Scarlatti introduces a new form of prelude, later known as the Italian overture, which is an important stage in the development of the symphony

In a friendly keyboard contest in Rome between Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, the result is a draw – Handel being the winner on the organ and Scarlatti on the harpsichord

Christopher Wren's new domed St Paul's cathedral is completed in London

The violinist Archangelo Corelli composes his Christmas Concerto, the best known of his influential group of twelve Concerti Grossi

Cosmas Damian Asam begins work on a highly theatrical creation, the Benedictine Abbey of Weltenburg (1714-1735), joined by his younger brother Egid Quirin from 1721

The lighter rococo style, beginning in France, becomes an extension of the baroque

The symphony begins to develop as a musical form, deriving from the overtures of operas

Johann Sebastian Bach compiles the Little Keyboard Book a set of pieces to teach his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Jean-Antoine Watteau paints the most splendid shop sign in history, for his friend Gersaint

Johann Sebastian Bach writes the six Brandenburg Concertos for his employer at the court of Köthen

J.S. Bach publishes The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues

Vivaldi publishes the set of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons

J.S. Bach conducts the first performance of his St Matthew Passion in the St Thomas's church in Leipzig

Handel composes Zadok the Priest for the crowning of George II, and it has been sung at every subsequent British coronation

With the performance of Esther Handel taps a rich new vein, the English oratorio

The Asam brothers build at their own expense the tiny and brilliant baroque church of St John Nepomuk, attached to their own house in Munich

J.S. Bach publishes another set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as an addition to his previous Well-Tempered Clavier

Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

By the time of his death the prolific output of Domenico Scarlatti includes 555 sonatas, all but a few for his own instrument, the harpsichord