This is a list of music-related events in 1817.

• Felix Mendelssohn begins studying composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter.
• Improved form of ophicleide invented by Jean Hilaire Asté in France.

• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • String Quintet, Op.104
  • Fugue in D major, Op.137
  • Gesang der Mönche, WoO 104
  • So oder So, WoO 148
  • Resignation, WoO 149
• Alexandre-Pierre-François Boëly – 30 Caprices, Op. 2
• Ferdinando Carulli – 6 Duos for Guitar and Flute, Op. 109
• Frederic Chopin – Two Polonaises
• Muzio Clementi – Gradus ad Parnassum Volume I is published simultaneously in London, Paris and Leipzig on March 1.
• Gaetano Donizetti
  • English Horn Concertino, A 459 (premiered June 19 in Bergamo)
  • Sinfonia for Winds in G minor, A 509 (composed April 19)
• Friedrich Dotzauer – Pot-Pourri for Cello and Guitar, Op. 21
• John Field
  • Nocturne No.4 in A major, H.36
  • Nocturne No.6 in F major ("Berceuse")
• Georg Gerson – Symphony in E-flat major
• Mauro Giuliani
  • Divertimenti, Op. 78
  • Preludes, Op. 83
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
  • Adagio, Variationen und Rondo über 'Pretty Polly', Op. 75
  • Variations sur un theme original, Op. 76
• Anselm Hüttenbrenner – 6 Variations, Op. 2
• Jean-Baptiste Krumpholtz – 2 Harp Duos, Op. 5
• Iwan Müller – Clarinet Quartet No. 2
• Niccolo Paganini – Violin Concerto No.1, Op.6
• Anton Reicha – Andante for Wind Quintet no. 1 in E-flat major
• Franz Schubert
  • Piano Sonata No.4, D.537
  • Allegro and Scherzo, D.570 (July)
  • String Trio in B-flat major, D. 581 (Autumn)
  • Notable Lieder
    • Trost, D.523
    • Schlaflied, D.527
    • Der Tod und das Mädchen, D.531
    • Ganymed, D.544
    • An die Musik, D.547
    • Die Forelle, D.550
• Louis Spohr – String Quartet No.11, Op. 43
• Václav Jan Tomášek – 6 Eglogues, Op. 47

• Franz Danzi – Die Probe
• Gioacchino Rossini
  • La Cenerentola
  • La Gazza Ladra
  • Armida
  • Adelaide di Borgogna

• Francesco Galeazzi – Elementi di Musica

• "Oft, in the Stilly Night" – w.m. (arr.) Thomas Moore
• "Te souviens-tu?" – Émile Debraux and Joseph-Denis Doche

• February 3 – Émile Prudent, composer (died 1863)
• February 22 – Niels Gade, composer (d. 1890)
• March 2 – Hans Hansen, composer (d. 1878)
• March 17
  • Karl Schroder I, violinist (died 1890)
  • Julius Stahlknecht, composer (died 1892)
• March 24 – Aimé Maillart, composer (d. 1871)
• March 28 – Mariano Soriano Fuertes, composer (died 1880)
• May 26 – Emil Erslev, composer (died 1882)
• May 27 – Giuseppe Bardari, librettist (died 1861)
• May 31 – Édouard Marie Ernest Deldevez, composer (died 1897)
• June 13 – Antonio Torres Jurado, Spanish guitar maker (d. 1892)
• August 13 – Károly Thern, pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1886)
• September 23 - Léon Charles François Kreutzer, music critic, music historian, and composer (d. 1868)^[1]
• October 5 – Eduard Franck, German composer (died 1893)
• November 12
  • Gustav Nottebohm, musicologist (d. 1882)
  • Carlo Pedrotti, composer and conductor (died 1893)
• November 13
  • Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, organist (d. 1869)
  • Henry Brinley Richards, composer (d. 1885)
• November 24 – Fritz Spindler, pianist (died 1905)
• December 19 – Charles Dancla, composer (died 1907)

• January 14 – Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, composer (b. 1729)
• January 28 – F.L.Æ. Kunzen, conductor and composer (b. 1761)
• March 1 – Luigi Gatti, composer (b. 1740)
• June 29 – Ernst Schulze, lyricist and poet (born 1789)
• August 24 – Nancy Storace, operatic soprano (b. 1766)
• October 11 – Franz Xaver Hammer, gambist, cellist and composer (b. 1741)
• October 12 – Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel, composer and pianist (born 1750)
• October 18 – Etienne Méhul, composer (b. 1763)
• November 7 – Francesco Pasquale Ricci, composer (b. 1732)
• December 1 – Justin Heinrich Knecht, organist and composer (b. 1752)
• December 3 – August Eberhard Müller, German composer (born 1767)
• December 11 – Max von Schenkendorf, poet and songwriter (born 1783)
• date unknown –
  • John Peacock, Northumbrian piper (b. c. 1756)
  • Pedro Étienne Solère, composer (born 1753)