Muzio Clementi

The present volume aims to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Muzio Clementi (Rome, 1752 - Evesham, 1832) by collecting the most recent research of the leading international experts on the life and work of the Italo-English composer.

Wishing to give this miscellaneous volume the structure of a heterogeneous, yet unified, journey through Clementi’s world, the editors have decided to group the separate contributions into thematic sections, to help guide the reader within the wide spectrum of the material collected. The first four sections — ‘Italy’, ‘England’, ‘Austria and Switzerland’, ‘France’ — offer a wide outlook on Clementi’s movements in the main European centres. Among other things they comprise studies on his Roman training, his collaboration in the creation of the Philharmonic Society, the famous competition with Mozart, the phenomenon of ‘Hausmusik’ in late 18th-century London, the performance of his works at the ‘Concert Spirituel’ and his reception in the Parisian academic environment in the early 19th century.

The two following sections, ‘The Music’ and ‘The Piano’, are devoted to his musical output. The former focuses mainly devoted on the orchestral and chamber works, which still today have received inadequate attention and diffusion. The latter, on the other hand, collects a series of essays on the piano music of one who is considered the founder of a school of international stature and whose works are a cornerstone of piano studies even today.

The section ‘The Entrepreneur’ tackles a peculiar aspect of Clementi’s life: his career as a publisher and piano maker. In a very short space of time he acquired fame as a man of business throughout Europe, at the same time playing an active role in the building of his company’s pianos. This section also includes an organological study of his square pianos. The volume closes with the section called ‘Lectures’, in which Johann Baptist Schaul and Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari have collected unpublished information on Clementi. The last subject to be dealt with is the emigration of music and musicians in the 18th century, a phenomenon that led many composers to perform and work at a variety of courts, theatres and concert halls throughout Europe. Though principally involving a number of significant Italian composers, including Cherubini, Cimarosa, Locatelli, Paisiello, Piccinni, Salieri, Viotti and Clementi, it also concerned composers of other European nationalities, among whom Janiewicz, who collaborated with Clementi and whose personal history was in many respects similar to his own.