Muzio Clementi was called the “father of the pianoforte”. He earned this title, not because he played the instrument first, but because he played it best out of his generation.
Clementi was the eldest of seven children. His father, Nicolo, was a silversmith in Rome. He started studying music at a very early age and was appointed the organist of his home church when he was only 13. It was his skills as a keyboardist that caught the ear of Peter Beckford, an English traveler with ties to London. Beckford paid Clementi’s father to have the boy come to England and serve as a musician at his estate in Dorset for a period of seven years.
Once his obligation to Beckford had been served, the 22 year old Clementi left for London. He quickly made a name for himself as a keyboardist and took his talents on the road in Paris and then Vienna.
On Christmas Eve, 1781, Emperor Joseph II staged a piano contest between the rising star Muzio Clementi and the hometown hero Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for the entertainment of his guests the Grand Duke and Duchess of Russia. The two musicians were to face off; improvising, playing new works at sight and playing pieces of their own composition. By all accounts, Clementi was the winner, much to Mozart’s disdain. Clementi wrote that he “had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace” as Mozart. Wolfgang declared that Muzio played well but had “no taste or feeling”. He later declared that Clementi was “a charlatan – like all Italians.” It seems that the harsh, public words of Mozart had a negative effect on Clementi’s reputation.
Don’t feel too bad for Clementi though. He still had a long career as a composer, music teacher and even an instrument manufacturer and music publisher. In 1807, he secured the rights to publish the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. His London firm, Longman, Clementi & Co. was extremely successful and supported Muzio and his family into his later years.
Clementi’s music spans the course of 55 years, marking the changing styles of his time. His early works are within the gallant tradition and by the end he was composing Romantic piano music that hinted at the works of Chopin. Clementi’s work deeply influenced the early piano sonatas of Beethoven and his teaching touched a generation of keyboardists.
Timeline is an exploration into the development of Western music. Take a journey into the events, characters and concepts that shaped our Western musical tradition.
