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The year 1681 in music involved some significant events.

• Arcangelo Corelli is employed by the electoral prince of Bavaria.
• Giovanni Legrenzi becomes assistant maestro di cappella at St Mark's, Venice.
• Jean-Baptiste Lully is appointed court secretary to King Louis XIV of France.
• Antonio Stradivari makes the Fleming violin.

• Heinrich Biber – 8 Violin Sonatas, C 138-145
• Dietrich Buxtehude
  • Afferte Domino gloriam honorem, BuxWV 2
  • Gen Himmel zu dem Vater mein, BuxWV 32
  • Kommst du Licht der Heiden, BuxWV 66
  • Sicut Mose, BuxWV 97
  • Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden, BuxWV 46
• Giovanni Paolo Colonna
  • Motetti sacri, Op. 2
  • Motetti, Op.3
• Arcangelo Corelli – Op. 1, 12 trio sonatas
• Henry Dumont
  • Motets à II, III et IV parties pour voix et instruments avec la basse continue
  • Benedicite Deum cæli
  • Jubilate Deo
• Johann Melchoir Gletle – Ave Maria (I and II)
• Carlo Piazzi – Balletti, Op.2
• Henry Purcell – Suite for Strings, Z.770
• Alessandro Stradella – Il Barcheggio

• Domenico Freschi – Pompeo Magno in Cilicia
• Jean-Baptiste Lully – Le Triomphe de l’Amour (ballet)
• Agostino Steffani – Marco Aurelio
• Marc Antonio Ziani – La Flora (composition begun by Antonio Sartorio, who died during composition)

• Johann Wolfgang Franck – Geistliche Lieder (Compositions by Franck, Georg Böhm, and Peter Laurentius Wockenfuss)
• Andreas Werckmeister – Orgel-Probe (the first appearance of the tuning system known as the Werckmeister temperament)

• January 20 – Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, composer (died 1732)
• March 14 – Georg Philipp Telemann, composer (died 1767)
• April 11 – Anne Danican Philidor, composer and concert organizer (died 1728)
• September 4 – Carl Heinrich Biber, composer (died 1749)
• September 28 – Johann Mattheson, composer (died 1764)
• December 14 – Giuseppe Valentini, violinist and composer (died 1753)
• date unknown – Giovanni Battista Reali, composer (died 1751)

• May 25 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, librettist (born 1600)
• June 27 – Ernst Christoph Homburg, librettist (born 1607)
• July 8 – Georg Neumark, hymnist (born 1621)
• October 22 – Benedetto Ferrari, composer (born c. 1603)
• date unknown – Francesco Corbetta, guitarist and composer (born c.1615)^[1]
• date unknown – Benedetto Ferrari, opera composer (born c.1603)^[2]