Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi (January 24, 1752 – March 10, 1832) was a classical composer, and acknowledged as the first to write specifically for the piano. He is best known for his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum.

Music

Clementi is best known for his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum, to which Debussy's piece "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum" (the first movement of his suite Children's Corner) makes playful allusion. Similarly his sonatinas would remain a must for piano students everywhere, until late 20th century. Erik Satie, a contemporary of Debussy, would spoof these sonatinas (specifically the sonatina Op. 36 N° 1) in his Sonatine Bureaucratique.

Related Topics:
Debussy - Children's Corner - Sonatina - 20th century - Erik Satie - Sonatine Bureaucratique

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Clementi composed almost 110 piano sonatas. Some of the earlier and easier ones were reissued as sonatinas after the success of his Sonatinas Op. 36, and continue to be popular practice pieces in piano education. His sonatas are only very rarely performed in public concerts, largely because they are seen as nonchallenging educational music. Clementi's sonatas are often more difficult to play than Mozart's, though — Mozart, in fact, wrote in a letter to his sister that he would prefer she not play the Clementi's sonatas due to their jumped runs, wide fingerspacing, and chords that he thought would cause injury for her to try to play.

Related Topics:
Piano sonata - Sonatina

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In addition to the piano solo repertoire, Clementi wrote a great deal of other music, including several recently pieced together, long worked on but slightly unfinished symphonies that are gradually becoming accepted by the musical establishment as being very fine works. While Clementi's music is hardly ever played in concerts, it is becoming increasingly popular in recordings.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's evident disrespect for Clementi (and perhaps Italians in general) has led some to call them "arch rivals." But the animosity was not as far as we know reciprocated by Clementi, and in any case Mozart's letters are full of irreverent jibes which he never expected to become public.

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Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz developed a special fondness for Clementi's work after his wife, Wanda Toscanini bought him Clementi's complete works. Horowitz even compared some of them to the best works of Beethoven. The restoration of Clementi's image as an artist to be taken seriously is not least due to his efforts.

Related Topics:
Vladimir Horowitz - Wanda Toscanini - Beethoven

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Muzio Clementi is a highly under-rated figure in the music world. He is widely regarded by scholars as the creator of both the modern pianoforte as an instrument, and the father of modern piano-playing.

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Being a contemporary of the greatest classical piano composers such as Mozart and Beethoven cast a large shadow on his own work (making him one of the "lesser gods"), at least in concert practice, despite the fact that he had a central position in the history of piano music, and in the development of the sonata form.

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