12/2/2018 Muzio Clementi -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Muzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi, in full Mutius Philippus Vincentius Franciscus Xaverius Clementi, (born
Jan. 23, 1752, Rome, Papal States [Italy]—died March 10, 1832, Evesham, Worcestershire, Eng.),
Italian-born British pianist and composer whose studies and sonatas developed the
techniques of the early piano to such an extent that he was called “the father of the piano.”
A youthful prodigy, Clementi was appointed an organist
at 9 and at 12 had composed an oratorio. In 1766 Peter
Beckford, a cousin of William Beckford, the author of
Vathek, prevailed upon Clementi’s father to allow him to
take the boy to England, where he lived quietly in
Wiltshire pursuing a rigorous course of studies. In 1773 he
went to London and met with immediate and lasting
success as a composer and pianist. The piano had
become more popular in England than anywhere else,
and Clementi, in studying its special features, made
brilliant use of the new instrument and its capabilities.
From 1777 to 1780 he was employed as harpsichordist at
the Italian Opera in London. In 1780 he went on tour to
Clementi, engraving, published 1803 Paris, Strasbourg, Munich, and Vienna, where he became
Courtesy of the trustees of the British engaged in a friendly musical duel with Wolfgang
Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co.
Amadeus Mozart at the instigation of the emperor,
Ltd.
Joseph II.
In 1782 Clementi returned to London, where for the next 20 years he continued his lucrative
occupations of fashionable teacher, composer, and performer. He was a shrewd
businessman: in 1799—in the wake of Joseph Haydn’s London visits and after Mozart’s much-
publicized remark that he was a “charlatan, like all Italians,” which together had substantially
weakened the market for his music—he cofounded a rm for both music publishing and the
manufacture of pianos. Among his numerous pupils were Johann Baptist Cramer, Giacomo
Meyerbeer, and John Field. Clementi visited the European continent again in 1820 and 1821. In
his later years he devoted himself to composition, and to this period belong several
symphonies, the scores of which were either lost or incomplete.
Clementi’s chief claims to fame are his long series of piano sonatas, many of which have been
revived, and his celebrated studies for piano, the Gradus ad Parnassum (1817; “Steps Toward
Parnassus”). His own contributions to the development of piano technique coincided with
the period of the new instrument’s rst popularity and did much to establish the lines on
which piano playing was to develop; important traces of his in uence may be found in the
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12/2/2018 Muzio Clementi -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
piano works of Haydn, Beethoven, and even Mozart, as well as the next generation of pianist-
composers.
CITATION INFORMATION
ARTICLE TITLE: Muzio Clementi
WEBSITE NAME: Encyclopaedia Britannica
PUBLISHER: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
DATE PUBLISHED: 03 March 2018
URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muzio-Clementi
ACCESS DATE: December 02, 2018
https://www.britannica.com/print/article/121140 2/2
