This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1686.

• Michel Richard Delalande – Ecce nunc benedicte, S.8
• Henry Du Mont – Benedic anima mea
• Johann Caspar Kerll
  • Modulatio organica
  • Toccata cromatica con durezze e ligature
• Marin Mariais – Pièces de viole, Livre 1
• Johann Christoph Pezel – Opus musicum sonatarum praestantissimarum (The "Alphabet Sonatas")
• Henry Purcell
  • Ye Tuneful Muses
  • (attrib.) – "Lillibullero"
• Vasily Titov – Psaltïr' rifmovannaya (Псалтырь рифмованная or Псалтырь римфотворная), vocal polyphonic setting of the Russian psalter
• Giuseppe Torelli – 10 Sonate a 3, with basso continuo, Op. 1^[1]
• Robert de Visée – Livre de pièces pour la guitare

• Jean-Baptiste Lully
  • Acis et Galatée, LWV 73
  • Armide, LWV 71
• Giacomo Antonio Perti– L'incoronazione di Dario^[2]
• Alessandro Scarlatti – Olimpia vendicata

• July 31 (or August 1) – Benedetto Marcello, composer (died 1739)
• August 17 – Nicola Porpora, composer (died 1768)
• September – Charles Young, organist and composer (died 1758)
• October 31 – Senesino, castrato singer (died 1758)
• December 15 – Jean-Joseph Fiocco, composer (died 1746)
• December 25 – Giovanni Battista Somis, violinist and composer (died 1763)

• c. November – John Playford, music publisher (born 1623)
• probable – Augustin Pfleger, composer (born 1635)