During the period after Mozart to the beginning of the Romantic
movement, one name alone attains the first rank—that of Beethoven.
At the same time there are several epoch-making pianists, whose
compositions display talent rather than genius, but who have each
rendered indisputable service in accomplishing the transition from the
classic to the romantic composers. The landmarks, so to speak, of this
period are Clementi, Cramer, Hummel, Czerny, Moscheles and Field.
=Muzio Clementi= (1752-1832) was born at Rome. His father was quick
to perceive his son’s gift for music, and strove to develop it by the
best teaching available. While he was still a lad, an Englishman,
Bedford or Beckford, took young Clementi with him to England where
he lived with his benefactor until 1770, perfecting himself in piano
playing and composition. At his first appearances in London he created
a furore, and from 1777-1780 he conducted at the piano in the Italian
opera there. In 1781, he began his travels as a virtuoso. At Vienna he
made the acquaintance of Josef Haydn, and also had a sort of musical
combat with Mozart. Each read at sight, played his own compositions and
improvised. Opinion was divided as to the outcome. Clementi displayed
more virtuosity, while Mozart charmed by his singing-tone, finished
phrasing and expressive style. For the following twenty years, Clementi
lived in London. He became interested in a piano manufactory and when
the firm failed, he established another, which is still carried on.
In 1802, Clementi went on a concert-tour with two favorite pupils, J.
B. Cramer and John Field. They visited Paris, Vienna and even St.
Petersburg, arousing great enthusiasm everywhere. In 1810, he settled
in London permanently, devoting himself to composition and business. In
1817, he published his _Gradus ad Parnassum_, a series of one hundred
studies treating every branch of technic and every problem of piano
playing then known.
[Illustration: MUZIO CLEMENTI.]
=Clementi as Composer and Pianist=.—In addition to his early works,
Clementi composed symphonies, more than one hundred sonatas for piano,
preludes, toccatas, canons and other piano music and finally the
_Gradus_. As Clementi was a true Italian by temperament, and German in
his education, the sonatas show the influence of Domenico Scarlatti, as
well as of Haydn and Mozart. They are technically in advance of their
day, though inclined to dryness musically. However, Beethoven admired
them, and is said to have preferred them to those of Mozart. Clementi’s
monumental work, the studies, treats every difficulty and style of
piano playing so very comprehensively that it is still indispensable
to the student. In his youth Clementi was a bravura-player, pure and
simple. “Strong in runs of thirds, but without a pennyworth of feeling”
was Mozart’s verdict. But later, when Clementi had become acquainted
with the larger tone of the English pianos, he cultivated expressive
playing. At his best, his brilliancy and facility were dazzling, and he
invariably carried all before him. Considering the fundamental value of
his studies, and his preëminent abilities as a pianist, it is just to
give him the title of “The Father of Piano Playing.”
=Johann Baptist Cramer= (1771-1858) was born at Mannheim, Germany. When
he was but a year old his father moved to London. As a boy he studied
the violin and the piano, as well as the theory of music, but soon
showed the greater aptitude for the piano. Later he became a pupil of
Clementi. Handel, Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn and Mozart were the objects
of his attention, thus establishing a taste for the classics. In 1788,
Cramer began a series of tours on the Continent, living at London in
the intervals. In 1828, he founded the music publishing firm of J.
B. Cramer & Co. He lived in Paris from 1832 to 1845, but returned to
London, where he remained until his death.
=Cramer as Composer and Pianist=.—Of Cramer’s numerous compositions,
such as seven concertos and one hundred and five sonatas for the
piano, besides variations, rondos, fantasias, etc., a quartet and
quintet, little is worth survival. His representative work is a series
of seventy-six studies, Op. 50, to which he afterwards added. These
studies long enjoyed a reputation second only to those of Clementi.
They do not aim primarily at virtuosity, but towards the cultivation
of musical style; at the same time they exhibit novelty of technical
invention, and demand a decided proficiency. Thus they tend to
supplement the studies of Clementi which are chiefly concerned with
technic. As a performer, Cramer was greatly admired for his perfect
legato, distinctness of phrasing and quiet singing tone. Beethoven
is said to have preferred him to all other pianists of his time.
While Cramer does not present a technical advance over Clementi, he
undoubtedly did much for the cultivation of the more strictly musical
qualities and thus stands for a definite progress.
[Illustration: J. B. CRAMER. J. N. HUMMEL.]
=Johann Nepomuk Hummel= (1778-1837) was born at Presburg, Hungary.
His father, who had been instructor in music at a military school in
Wartburg, moved to Vienna in 1786 to become director at the theatre of
Schikaneder, (the author of the libretto of Mozart’s opera “The Magic
Flute”). Mozart soon took so deep an interest in young Hummel that he
took him to live with him and taught him for two years. From 1788 to
1795, Hummel traveled as a virtuoso. On returning to Vienna he studied
composition with Albrechtsberger, and received advice from Salieri and
Haydn. From 1804 to 1811 he was music-director under Prince Esterhazy,
Haydn’s patron. In 1816, he became conductor at Stuttgart, and in
1819 he occupied a similar position at Weimar. From here he went to
Russia, where he made a successful concert-tour, playing at Warsaw,
where the youthful Chopin heard him. From 1825 to 1833 he traveled on
concert-tours, returning to Weimar, where he passed the remainder of
his life.
=Hummel as Composer and Pianist=.—Hummel’s compositions include
operas, ballets, masses and other church music, a quintet, trios,
rondos, studies and other music for the piano, but he is best known
for the piano concertos in A-flat, A minor and B minor, the sonatas
in F-sharp minor and D major, the Septet, Op. 74, and a voluminous
instruction-book for the piano, chiefly remarkable for its pedantry
and absence of practicality. As a pupil of Mozart, he followed his
teacher’s form and style, without exhibiting marked creative genius.
His technic is noticeable chiefly for its superficial glitter of
brilliant passages, which constitute a certain development in
themselves. His compositions were in great vogue at one time, and he
was once even regarded as the equal of Beethoven. As a pianist, Hummel
was unusual. His style was distinguished by precision, clearness, and
command of brilliant effect. His influence as a concert pianist was
very great, and in this direction his extension of the province of the
virtuoso is considerable. He undoubtedly affected Chopin’s piano style
for a time and for this reason alone should claim our attention.
=Carl Czerny= (1791-1857) was born at Vienna. His father, an excellent
musician, taught his son piano playing at an early age. Beethoven
became interested in him, and gave him lessons. He also learned much
from Hummel and Clementi. Czerny soon became in great demand as a
teacher. He made concert-tours to Leipzig, Paris, London and Lombardy.
For the most part he lived quietly in Vienna, teaching and composing.
In 1850, his health gave way from overwork. His most celebrated pupils
were Franz Liszt and Theodore Leschetizky.
=Czerny’s Compositions=.—Czerny was an indefatigable and over-fluent
composer who weakened his powers by over-productivity. Hence, of more
than a thousand works, his masses, requiems, symphonies, overtures,
chamber-music, etc., are obsolete, but his educational works are
destined to live. Of many valuable sets of studies, the most used are
those for Velocity, Op. 299, and Finger Training, Op. 740. Musically,
they are of slight importance, but they are invaluable to this day
in acquiring facility. Czerny had an immense knowledge of the higher
mechanism of piano playing, and a keen perception of practical methods.
His fame as a pianist was overshadowed by his ceaseless work as teacher
and composer.
[Illustration: CARL CZERNY.]
=Ignaz Moscheles= (1794-1870), described as “the foremost pianist after
Hummel and before Chopin,” was born at Prague. He studied the piano
with Dionys Weber, director of the Prague Conservatory, and at fourteen
played a concerto of his own in public. After the death of his father,
he went to Vienna to make his way as a teacher, and to continue his
studies in composition. He soon became in great demand as a pianist and
teacher, and for ten years lived the life of a traveling virtuoso. In
1824, he gave lessons to Mendelssohn, then a boy of fifteen, at Berlin.
Soon after his marriage at Hamburg, in 1826, he went to London, where
he remained with some interruptions for nearly twenty years of activity
as pianist, teacher and conductor. In 1845, he took the post of teacher
of the piano at the Leipzig Conservatory, founded by Mendelssohn.
[Illustration: IGNAZ MOSCHELES.]
=Moscheles as Composer and Pianist=.—As a composer, Moscheles was
divided between his classical training and his unmistakably romantic
instincts. Hence, a long list of variations, fantasias, rondos, written
to please publishers, in accordance with the fashion of the time,
have not survived, but his best works, the concerto in G minor, the
“Pathetic” concerto, the sonata, Op. 49, his duet for two pianos,
“Hommage á Handel” and especially the studies, Op. 70 and 95, combine
a respect for classic form with the growing Romantic movement. The
studies may be regarded as the legitimate successors to those of
Cramer, and paved the way for the more romantic etudes of Chopin.
Moscheles was a solidly trained pianist of great brilliancy. He had
many characteristics of the classical school; he used the pedals
sparingly, he played octaves with a stiff wrist, his phrasing was
precise and his accents were sharply marked; but in the brilliant style
he had no rivals. He was famous for his improvisations; his cadenzas to
concertos and his extempore treatments of well-known themes were marked
by spontaneity, brilliance and exquisite feeling.
=John Field= (1782-1837), one of the last connecting links between the
Classical and Romantic schools, was born at Dublin. Early in life,
he was taken to London and apprenticed to Clementi, who gave him
lessons, and employed him to show off his pianos. In 1802, he went on
a concert-tour with Clementi to Paris, Germany and Russia. Field lived
for many years as pianist and teacher at St. Petersburg and Moscow.
After returning to England, he made a long tour through Belgium,
Switzerland, and finally, Italy, where his health gave way. Shortly
after he returned to Moscow, where he died.
=Field as Composer and Pianist=.—Field’s compositions in classical
forms include seven concertos, four sonatas, rondos, variations, etc.
They are forgotten now, although Chopin had a partiality for his
concerto in A-flat and gave it to his pupils; but his lyric pieces for
piano, entitled nocturnes, are still played. They are the forerunners
of the type so extended and developed by Chopin. He is thus one of the
first of the romanticists in spite of his classical training. In 1802,
Field astonished the Parisians by his masterly playing of Bach and
Handel, but his individuality later took a more romantic turn. His tone
was tender and melancholy, and his phrases gently expressive. Shortly
before his death, though broken in health, he created a stir in Vienna
by his interpretations of his own nocturnes. In some respects his
playing was akin to Chopin’s highly individual style.
=To sum up=, it will be seen that Clementi was the originator of a
system of technic that has served as the foundation of modern piano
playing; Cramer was the conserver of classic style and purity of
standard; Hummel, as a brilliant pianist, had a decided influence on
the piano playing of his time, but as a composer attempted to pass
superficial brilliance for the true coin of musical substance; Czerny,
one of the greatest educators in the history of piano playing, has had
an immense influence through his invaluable educational works, and as
the teacher of Franz Liszt, the epitome of modern piano playing, and
also of Theodore Leschetizky, possibly the foremost teacher of the
present day; Moscheles, the classic pianist, gave decided impetus to
the cause of romanticism by his best compositions; Field, though the
pupil of Clementi, prepared the way through his own individuality for
the greatest piano composer of the Romantic period, Chopin, and thus
became an important factor in the transition from the Classic to the
Romantic period.