The year 1688 in music involved some significant events.

• Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, hired Bartolomeo Cristofori as his keeper of musical instruments.

• Lilliburlero in popular circulation

• John Blow – Ode for New Year's Day
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier
  • Magnificat à 4 voix sans instruments, H.76
  • Dixit Dominus H.202
• Gottfried Finger – 12 Sonatas for Diverse Instruments, Op.1
• Johann Philipp Krieger – O Jesu, du mein Leben
• Henry Purcell – A Fool's Preferment, Z.571
• André Raison – Premier livre d'orgue
• Johann Schenck – Tyd en Konst-Oeffeningen, Op.2
• Daniel Speer
  • Philomela angelica cantionum sacrarum
  • Musikalisch-türkischer Eulenspiegel
• Giuseppe Torelli – 12 Concertino per camera for Violin and Cello, Op. 4, published in Bologna
• Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani – Salmi, Mottetti e Litanie della B. V. a 1. 2. 3. voci
• Johann Jakob Walther – Hortulus chelicus

• Marc-Antoine Charpentier – David et Jonathas
• Johann Philipp Förtsch – Die heilige Eugenia
• Jean-Louis Lully – Zephire et Flore
• Henry Purcell – Dido and Aeneas Z.626
• Philidor André Danican l'aine – Le Mariage de la grosse Cathos

• April 15 – Johann Friedrich Fasch, composer (died 1758)
• October 17 – Domenico Zipoli, composer (died 1726)
• date unknown
  • Zacharias Hildebrandt, organ builder (died 1777)
  • Lorenzo Sornis, violinist

• January 8 – Francesco Foggia, composer (b. 1604)
• January 29 – Carlo Pallavicino, Italian composer (b. c. 1630)
• May 14 – Carlo Grossi, composer (born c. 1634)
• November 26 – Philippe Quinault, librettist for many operas of Jean-Baptiste Lully (born 1635)
• date unknown – Anne Chabanceau de La Barre (born c. 1628)