Muzio Clementi was born at Rome in the year 1752, and was the son of
a silver worker of great skill, who was principally engaged on the
execution of the embossed figures and vases employed in the Catholic
worship. The boy at a very early age evinced a most decided taste
for music, a predilection which delighted his father, himself an
enthusiastic amateur, and caused him to bestow the utmost pains on the
cultivation of the child's talents. The boy's first master was Buroni,
choir-master a tone of the churches, and a relation of the family.
Later, young Clementi took lessons in thorough bass from an eminent
organist, Condicelli, and after a couple of years' application he was
thought sufficiently advanced to apply for the position of organist,
which he obtained, his age then being barely nine. He prosecuted his
studies with great zeal under the ablest masters, and his genius for
composition as well as for playing displayed a rapid development. By the
time Clementi had attained the age of fourteen he had composed several
contrapuntal works of considerable merit, one of which, a mass for four
voices and chorus, gained great applause from the musicians and public
of Rome.
During his studies of counterpoint and the organ Clementi never
neglected his harpsichord, on which he achieved remarkable proficiency,
for the piano-forte at this time, though gradually coming into use, was
looked on rather as a curiosity than an instrument of practical value.
The turning-point of Clementi's life occurred in 1767, through his
acquaintance with an English gentleman of wealth, Mr. Peter Beckford,
who evinced a deep interest in the young musician's career. After much
opposition Mr. Beckford persuaded the elder Clementi to intrust his
son's further musical education to his care. The country seat of Mr.
Beckford was in Dorsetshire, England, and here, by the aid of a fine
library, social surroundings of the most favorable kind, and indomitable
energy on his own part, he speedily made himself an adept in the English
language and literature. The talents of Clementi made him almost an
Admirable Crichton, for it is asserted that, in addition to the most
severe musical studies, he made himself in a few years a proficient in
the principal modern languages, in Greek and Latin, and in the
whole circle of the belles-lettres. His studies in his own art were
principally based on the works of Corelli, Alexander Scarlatti,
Handel's harpsichord and organ music, and on the sonatas of Paradies, a
Neapolitan composer and teacher, who enjoyed high repute in London for
many years. Until 1770 Clementi spent his time secluded at his patron's
country seat, and then fully equipped with musical knowledge, and with
an unequaled command of the instrument, he burst on the town as pianist
and composer. He had already written at this time his "Opus No. 2,"
which established a new era for sonata compositions, and is recognized
to-day as the basis for all modern works of this class.
Clementi's attainments were so phenomenal that he carried everything
before him in London, and met with a success so brilliant as to be
almost without precedent. Socially and musically he was one of the
idols of the hour, and the great Handel himself had not met with as much
adulation. Apropos of the great sonata above mentioned, with which the
Clementi furore began in London, it is said that John Christian Bach,
son of Sebastian, one of the greatest executants of the time, confessed
his inability to do it justice, and Schrôter, one of those sharing the
honor of the invention of the piano-forte, and a leading musician of his
age, said, "Only the devil and Clementi could play it." For seven years
the subject of our sketch poured forth a succession of brilliant works,
continually gave concerts, and in addition acted as conductor of the
Italian opera, a life sufficiently busy for the most ambitious man. In
1780 Clementi began his musical travels, and gave the first concerts
of his tour at Paris, whither he was accompanied by the great singer
Pacchierotti. He was received with the greatest favor by the queen,
Marie Antoinette, and the court, and made the acquaintance of Gluck, who
warmly admired the brilliant player who had so completely revolutionized
the style of execution on instruments with a keyboard. Here he also met
Viotti, the great violinist, and played a _duo concertante_ with the
latter, expressly composed for the occasion. Clementi was delighted with
the almost frantic enthusiasm of the French, so different from the more
temperate approbation of the English. He was wont to say jocosely that
he hardly knew himself to be the same man. From Paris Clementi passed,
via Strasburg and Munich, where he was most cordially welcomed,
to Vienna, the then musical Mecca of Europe, for it contained two
world-famed men--"Papa" Haydn and the young prodigy Mozart. The Emperor
Joseph II, a great lover of music, could not let the opportunity slip,
for he now had a chance to determine which was the greater player, his
own pet Mozart or the Anglo-Italian stranger whose fame as an executant
had risen to such dimensions. So the two musicians fought a musical
duel, in which they played at sight the most difficult works, and
improvised on themes selected by the imperial arbiter. The victory
was left undecided, though Mozart, who disliked the Italians, spoke
afterward of Clementi, in a tone at variance with his usual gentleness,
as "a mere mechanician, without a pennyworth of feeling or taste."
Clementi was more generous, for he couldn't say too much of Mozart's
"singing touch and exquisite taste," and dated from this meeting a
considerable difference in his own style of play.
With the exception of occasional concert tours to Paris, Clementi
devoted all his time up to 1802 in England, busy as conductor, composer,
virtuoso, and teacher. In the latter capacity he was unrivaled, and
pupils came to him from all parts of Europe. Among these pupils were
John B. Cramer and John Field, names celebrated in music. In 1802
Clementi took the brilliant young Irishman, John Field, to St.
Petersburg on a musical tour, where both master and pupil were received
with unbounded enthusiasm, and where the latter remained in affluent
circumstances, having married a Russian lady of rank and wealth.
Field was idolized by the Russians, and they claim his compositions
as belonging to their music. He is now distinctively remembered as the
inventor of that beautiful form of musical writing, the nocturne. Spohr,
the violinist, met Clementi and Field at the Russian capital, and gives
the following amusing account in his "Autobiography": "Clementi, a man
in his best years, of an extremely lively disposition and very engaging
manners, liked much to converse with me, and often invited me after
dinner to play at billiards. In the evening I sometimes accompanied him
to his large piano-forte warehouse, where Field was often obliged
to play for hours to display instruments to the best advantage to
purchasers. I have still in recollection the figure of the pale
overgrown youth, whom I have never since seen. When Field, who had
outgrown his clothes, placed himself at the piano, stretching out his
arms over the keyboard, so that the sleeves shrank up nearly to the
elbow, his whole figure appeared awkward and stiff in the highest
degree. But, as soon as his touching instrumentation began, everything
else was forgotten, and one became all ear. Unfortunately I could not
express my emotion and thankfulness to the young man otherwise than
by the pressure of the hand, for he spoke no language but his mother
tongue. Even at that time many anecdotes of the remarkable avarice of
the rich Clementi were related, which had greatly increased in later
years when I again met him in London. It was generally reported that
Field was kept on very short allowance by his master, and was obliged to
pay for the good fortune of having his instruction by many privations.
I myself experienced a little sample of Clementi's truly Italian
parsimony, for one day I found teacher and pupil with upturned sleeves,
engaged at the wash-tub, washing their stockings and other linen. They
did not suffer themselves to be disturbed, and Clementi advised me to do
the same, as washing in St. Petersburg was not only very expensive, but
the linen suffered much from the method used in washing it."
From the above it may be suspected that Clementi was not only player
and composer, but man of business. He had been very successful in
money-making in England from the start, and it was not many years before
he accumulated a sufficient amount to buy an interest in the firm of
Longman & Broderip, "manufacturers of musical instruments, and music
sellers to their majesties." The failure of the house, by which he
sustained heavy losses, induced him to try his hand alone at music
publishing and piano-forte manufacturing; and his great success (the
firm is still extant in the person of his partner's son, Mr. Col-lard)
proves he was an exception to the majority of artists, who rarely
possess business talents. Clementi met many reverses in his commercial
career. In March, 1807, the warehouses occupied by Clementi's new firm
were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of about forty thousand pounds.
But the man's courage was indomitable, and he retrieved his misfortunes
with characteristic pluck and cheerfulness. After 1810 he gave up
playing in public, and devoted himself to composing and the conduct of
his piano-forte business, which became very large and valuable. Himself
an inventor and mechanician, he made many important improvements in the
construction of the piano, some of which have never been superseded.