Clementi, Muzio 1752 - 1832
Author: Imazeki, Shiori
Last updated：December 11, 2018
Author: Imazeki, Shiori
Muzio Clementi was born on January 23, 1752, in the parish of San Lorenzo in Rome. His father, Nicolo, a silversmith, endeavored to provide his son with the best musical education, sending him to lessons in solfège, thoroughbass, and other subjects. This exceptional education bore fruit, and Clementi, at the tender age of 13, secured the position of organist at San Lorenzo Church. His activities as an organist at this time caught the attention of the English nobleman Peter Beckford (1740–1811), and Clementi left his father's home to accompany Beckford to Dorset in southwestern England.
Around late 1774 or early 1775, Clementi moved from Dorset to London and began his full-fledged musical career. It is believed that Clementi did not receive much attention at that time in London, as Johann Christian Bach was active there, but he gradually made a name for himself as a harpsichordist. In the spring of 1779, his Keyboard Sonatas, Op. 2, gained popularity, and his subsequent concert appearances increased.
In May 1780, Clementi embarked on a concert tour to the Continent. The most significant event of this tour was Clementi's performance alongside Mozart before Emperor Joseph II of Austria on December 24, 1781. Testimony that Joseph II preferred Mozart's performance to Clementi's at this time can be found in a letter from Mozart to his father. However, considering that Mozart persistently criticized Clementi's playing as that of a “charlatan” even months after this imperial performance, it could be argued that this event, or Clementi's performance, left a profound impression on Mozart, and furthermore, that it was an expression of jealousy towards Clementi's reputation as a performer.
After his joint performance with Mozart, Clementi returned to London in the autumn of 1783 and reappeared as a keyboard player. However, he made his last appearance as a solo pianist at a concert on May 31, 1790, seven years later, bringing his career as a soloist to an end. The exact reason for this is unknown, but it is clear that Clementi intended to remain active in the music world thereafter.
After retiring as a soloist, Clementi expanded his activities in the music world as a conductor (responsible for thoroughbass on keyboard instruments at the time), a music publisher, a manager of instrument manufacturing companies, and an educator. In his music publishing business, Clementi himself visited Beethoven, particularly to acquire the British copyrights for Beethoven's works, and published pieces such as Piano Concerto No. 5 and Piano Sonatas Op. 78 and Op. 79. In January 1813, he co-founded the “Philharmonic Society” with musicians active in London, and conducted not only his own symphonies but also various other works. His activities as an educator began in the late 18th century, and he is known for having trained prominent pianists such as Johann Baptist Cramer and John Field. However, his reputation as an educator was further enhanced by the publication of several piano pedagogical works, including Introduction to the Art of Playing the Pianoforte, Op. 42 (1801), and Gradus ad Parnassum, Op. 44 (1817, 1819, 1826). It is clear that Clementi's pedagogical works served as cornerstones in the training of pianists, as they were used by Czerny, Chopin, Liszt, and others in private lessons, and also as teaching materials in the piano department of the Paris Conservatoire. Clementi, who passed away on March 10, 1832, was buried in Westminster Abbey in London on March 29 of the same year. His tombstone bears the inscription “Father of the Pianoforte,” commemorating his widespread fame throughout Europe.
Author : Ueda, Yasushi
Last Updated: October 15, 2013
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Author : Ueda, Yasushi
Clementi, who lived for 80 years spanning two centuries, survived an era of great upheaval both socially and in the development of piano music. The turmoil of the French Revolution, which began in 1789, and the order established by Napoleon's empire gradually led Europe throughout the 19th century from monarchical rule towards the realization of republican ideals. In the latter half of the 18th century, the production of pianos began to increase at a pace that surpassed the harpsichord, and by the early 19th century, swept up by the waves of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism that enabled mass production, the harpsichord became a relic of the past. After his Three Sonatas, Op. 32, published in 1793, Clementi ceased to include "for pianoforte or harpsichord" in his titles. It can be said that Clementi's creative history is itself the history of keyboard instruments as they developed from the late 18th to the 19th century.
1. Education in Italy and Emigration to England (1752-1774)
Born in Rome on January 23, 1752, Clementi began his musical journey at an early age, studying with private teachers in his hometown. His talent blossomed rapidly, to the extent that he was appointed church organist at the age of 13. In 1766, an English nobleman who loved music stopped in Rome. His name was Sir Peter Beckford (1740-1811), cousin of the novelist William Beckford. On the condition that he would take care of this prodigy for seven years, Sir Beckford took Clementi back to England and provided him with an ideal environment, both materially and intellectually, at his estate in Dorset. Six Sonatas for Pianoforte or Harpsichord, Op. 1 (1771), is one of the few keyboard works written during his student years.
2. International Concert Tours (1774-1785) and the Encounter with Mozart
In '74, when his seven-year contract expired, he moved to London and began his performing career as a harpsichordist. Since his debut in '75, he had established himself as a leading performer in London by '80. An encyclopedia entry introducing Clementi in 1780 described him as follows: "Mr. Clementi performs [successions of octaves] with great brilliance. He is one of the most brilliant performers." In the summer of '80, aiming for further success, he crossed the Channel and embarked on a concert tour on the Continent. Clementi, who had connections with the upper classes since his time under Sir Beckford's patronage, often had the opportunity to perform before royalty in Paris and Austria. One such performance took place at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, brother of Marie Antoinette, alongside Mozart. The court performance in December 1781 is described in the commentary for Sonata, Op. 24-2. The fact that Mozart later described Clementi's skillful fingerwork as "mere mechanism" and even called him a "charlatan" is often quoted, but such evaluations based on temporary impressions or personal feelings should not be applied to Clementi's overall assessment as a composer and performer. Furthermore, relying solely on this passage to discuss Clementi's musical talent would only lead to a fruitless debate lacking objectivity and fairness.
Clementi, who left Vienna in May of the following year, achieved success in Switzerland and Lyon, France, and after staying in Lyon for some time, returned to London in May '85. His career as an educator began around this time.
3. Establishing Fame in London: Educator, Instrument Manufacturer, and Composer (c. 1785-1800)
3-1. As an Educator
From 1785 to 1802, Clementi continued to reside in London. As an already experienced pianist and composer, he frequently appeared in London concerts, performing his own sonatas, solidifying his position as one of the city's foremost musicians. Not only as a pianist, but until the mid-90s, Clementi also dreamed of success as a symphonic composer, conducting his own symphonies and directing concertos from the keyboard (original scores for the concertos have not been found). As an educator, he was highly esteemed, and not only citizens from wealthy families but even royalty desired his lessons. Among the professional musicians who received Clementi's tutelage, particularly famous names include Johann Baptist Cramer, Benoît-Auguste Bertini (Henri Bertini's brother), John Field, and Friedrich Kalkbrenner. All of them made their mark in the 19th-century piano world not only as insightful virtuosos but also as piano educators. Cramer succeeded Clementi as the founder of 19th-century "piano etudes," Henri Bertini as the establisher of the "characteristic etude" genre, Field as an explorer of lyrical expression in early 19th-century Romantic concertos and newly established nocturnes, and Kalkbrenner as a theorist who systematized the homogeneity of both hands and the independence of fingers.
3-2. Instrument Manufacturing and Publishing
From the end of 1790, Clementi began to invest the capital he accumulated from his performing and teaching activities into the business of piano manufacturing and sales. In 1798, following the bankruptcy of instrument maker John Longman, Clementi gathered Longman and co-investors to raise funds and revived the company as Longman & Clementi, co-managing it until Longman became independent in 1800. Thereafter, Clementi remained the head of the company until his later years in 1830, directing its management while expanding into not only pianos but also music publishing.
3-3. Clementi as a Composer
Thanks to his stable life in London, Clementi was able to focus intensively on composing and publishing. His works include two symphonies, Op. 18 (B-flat major, D major), the Piano Sonata, Op. 33-3, conceived as a piano concerto, capriccios (Op. 17; Op. 34-3,4) featuring improvisatory introductions based on arpeggios and virtuosic runs, lyrical melodies, and dramatic developments, and numerous sonatas for piano or harpsichord, which constitute the majority of his output. Clementi's keyboard works published in the 18th century, especially after his stay in Vienna, clearly bear the stylistic characteristics of the High Classical period often attributed to Haydn and Mozart, including advanced harmony and contrapuntal mastery (Op. 24-2). Furthermore, particularly from the 1790s onwards, he experimented with new movement structures in the sonata genre, predating Beethoven (e.g., Op. 25-4 in A major, which begins with a slow movement instead of a sonata-allegro, and Op. 33-2, which has an Adagio introduction in the first movement). Clementi, who was involved in piano manufacturing, also explored new possibilities of expression on the piano through his performance techniques, such as lyrical expression, resonant bass in octaves, and symphonic sonorities utilizing thick chords (Op. 33-3), thereby expanding the expressive potential of the piano. Six Sonatinas, Op. 36 (1797), written with an educational intent, are treated today as synonymous with Clementi, but they are the only "sonatinas" among all his published works. To consider them Clementi's representative works while disregarding his other capriccios and sonatas is a significant misunderstanding.
4. "Business Trips" to the European Continent (1801-1810)
In 1801, Clementi published his Introduction to the Art of Playing the Pianoforte. This piano method contains carefully annotated examples of fingering, dynamics, and phrasing for works by predecessors such as Corelli, Couperin, and Haydn, as well as younger contemporaries like Mozart, Dussek, and his beloved pupil Cramer. The background for Clementi, known for his expensive lessons, to publish his teaching method just before turning 50 was a plan to promote his commercial activities. To expand his long-standing piano manufacturing, sales, and publishing businesses, in 1802, he left his base in London with his pupil John Field and embarked on a journey to visit his native Italy, Germany, and Russia. According to L. Plantinga, his itinerary, based in Germany, was as follows:
- 1802: Vienna
- 1802-1803: Russia
- 1804-1805: Vienna, Italy
- 1806: Russia
- 1806-1807: Vienna
- 1807-1808: Italy
- 1808-1810: Vienna
During this long business trip spanning approximately eight years until 1810, Clementi was fully occupied with negotiations with composers to acquire copyrights and with promoting piano sales. The most significant achievement in music publishing was the acquisition of copyrights for the following Beethoven works in 1807: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58; String Quartets (Razumovsky Quartets), Op. 59; Violin Concerto, Op. 61; Coriolan Overture, Op. 62; and Symphony No. 5, Op. 67. From 1810 to 1811, copyrights for ten more of Beethoven's works came into his possession. Regarding the Violin Concerto, he even succeeded in having Beethoven himself arrange it as a piano concerto and publishing it through Clementi & Co.
His pupils contributed greatly to piano sales. Like his long-standing pupil Field, Alexander Klengel (1783-1852) and Ludwig Berger (1777-1830), who became his pupils in Germany, accompanied their master to St. Petersburg and held concerts to promote pianos. They eventually grew into excellent musicians, and Klengel's 48 Canons and Fugues captivated the young Chopin. Berger, as a teacher to young German masters such as Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Wilhelm Taubert (1811-1891), and Adolf Henselt (1814-1889), passed on Clementi's teachings to later generations. Furthermore, among French composers, Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), who took France by storm in the first half of the century, would also inherit and develop Clementi's method.
In his private life, in 1804, he married Caroline Lehmann, a young woman more than 30 years his junior, but tragically, she lost her life during childbirth the following year.
5. Symphonic Composer (1810-1822)
In 1810, Clementi returned to London after a long absence. This veteran musician, nearing his sixtieth birthday, remarried the following year to an English woman named Emma Gisborne, and overcoming the death of his previous wife, had two sons and two daughters. The company's management, which had suffered a fire in 1807 while he was away, was back on track, and his stable life as a musician continued. The founding of the Philharmonic Society in London in 1813 provided Clementi with the opportunity to compose and perform symphonies amidst his busy business and teaching schedule. Clementi indeed harbored the ambition to stand alongside Beethoven (1770-1827), who enjoyed international fame in his time, as a symphonic composer. To introduce his own symphonies to continental audiences, he personally traveled to France and Germany and lobbied orchestral organizations. In 1816 and 1817, he conducted his own symphonies at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, and in 1822, he conducted them three times with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Berlin. However, his fame as an orchestral composer did not last.
6. Late Works
During this period, it was rather in the field of piano music that his name was elevated. Gradus ad Parnassum, or The Art of Playing the Pianoforte, Op. 44, whose publication began in 1817 and was issued in three parts in 1819 and 1826, was compiled as a collection of 100 musical exercises encompassing various forms and genres such as fugues, canons, sonatas, and etudes, and thereafter became synonymous with Clementi.
From 1820 to 1821, nearing his 70th birthday, he likely released a series of major late works that he had accumulated. These include the Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 46 (1820), dedicated to his esteemed pupil Kalkbrenner; Two Capriccios, Op. 47, dedicated to his wife; Fantasia on the Folk Song "Moonlight", Op. 48, dedicated to Madame Moreau; 12 Monferrinas, Op. 49, a collection of light and delicate pieces; and the masterpiece that concluded his creative life, Three Sonatas, Op. 50 (1821). This last sonata was published with a dedication to the esteemed Luigi Cherubini, who would become director of the Paris Conservatoire the following year. In particular, the third sonata, "Didone abbandonata – Scena tragica," a type of program music, was later reprinted and highly regarded among discerning musicians.
7. Later Years and Death (1820s-1832)
In the twilight of his long life, Clementi withdrew from company management and, in his very last years, retired to Evesham, a town located northwest of London. Antoine-François Marmontel (1816-1898), a French educator, pianist, and composer, recounts an anecdote about Clementi from this period.
"When he made a rare visit to London, Clementi was entertained by prominent musicians such as Cramer and Moscheles. After dinner, Clementi, despite his advanced age of 80, offered to play and astonished the audience with his improvisations. The youthful ideas, the virtuoso's boldness, and the color and power of his style that breathed within it clearly showed that he was still as he had been at the height of his success."
This episode well illustrates Clementi's spiritual youth, as he continuously strived for improvement and remained active. However, his life's destiny ended shortly after he drew up his will on January 2, 1832. Clementi died in Evesham on March 10.
Author : Jitsukata, Kosuke
Last Updated: April 1, 2007
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Author : Jitsukata, Kosuke
Clementi, a Classical period composer and keyboardist. Born into a craftsman's family in Rome, he moved to London in his youth and subsequently made it the base of his activities. He left works in various genres, including symphonies, concertos, and chamber music, but his keyboard works are particularly numerous. His Sonatinas are widely known as introductory teaching materials for piano students.Mozart and was described as 'tasteless and mechanical.' However, it is said that at this time, Clementi, though renowned as a harpsichordist, was not yet accustomed to the piano. Clementi later began manufacturing musical instruments. He achieved success as an entrepreneur, selling pianos with talented pupils like John Field and Klenge as demonstrators (though it is also said he was a harsh taskmaster), and also engaging in music publishing.
Works(110)
Piano Solo
sonata (24)
Four sonatas for the piano forte and one duett for two piano fortes Op. 12
Playing time: 57 min 30 sec
Six sonatas for the piano forte with an accompanyment for a violin or german flute Op. 13
Playing time: 42 min 00 sec
Deux sonates pour le clavecin ou piano-forte Op.41 (Op.47-1)
Key: Es-Dur Playing time: 17 min 30 sec
sonatina (3)
eｘercise (2)
etude (1)
toccata (1)
Key: Es-Dur Playing time: 13 min 40 sec
variation (3)
The black joke with 21 variations for the pianoforte or harpsichord WO2
Key: G-Dur Playing time: 20 min 30 sec
Minuetto a tempo di ballo composed by Mr. Collick with five variations for the piano forte WO5
Key: F-Dur Playing time: 6 min 00 sec
cadenza (1)
caprice (3)
Reduction/Arrangement (3)
Various works (15)
Fantasie, avec variations, sur l'air "Au Clair de la Lune," pour le piano forte Op.48
Key: 幻：c-moll/変：C-Dur Playing time: 9 min 20 sec
Piano Ensemble
sonata (20)
Clementi's grand sonata, for the piano-forte or harpsichord with new accompaniments Op.30
Key: C-Dur Playing time: 11 min 40 sec
Playing time: 1 hr 00 min 00 sec
Four sonatas for the piano forte and one duett for two piano fortes Op.12
Key: B-Dur Playing time: 1 hr 10 min 00 sec
waltz (2)
Twelve walzes, for the piano forte, with an accompaniment for a tamburino ＆ Triangle Op.38
Playing time: 19 min 50 sec
Twelve waltzes, for the piano forte, with an accompaniment for a tamburino＆triangle Op.39
Playing time: 28 min 10 sec
Reduction/Arrangement (9)
Various works (10)
Key: C-Dur Playing time: 14 min 10 sec