J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

eighteenth century; and however much he might seem to prefigure Field or Thalberg
his material and formal approach were fundamentally Classical. There has been a
considerable revival of interest in his music during the twentieth century, promoted by
many distinguished admirers. No one, however, has made the metaphysical claims for
his music that seem to be inseparable from Beethoven’s. No one has yet made him the
key to their music-historical narrative, or erected an analytical system around his
music. And this is why the music of Muzio Clementi, with its relatively sparse critical
tradition, make such an interesting comparison to the rich reception history of
Beethoven’s. Clementi was the only one of Beethoven’s contemporaries to share his
interest in combining the strictest of counterpoint with a uniquely personal and
forward-looking style, and showed a comparably long-standing engagement with the
music of J. S. Bach.
MUZIO CLEMENTI
When he died in 1832, Muzio Clementi was indisputably one of the elder
statesmen of European music. One of the very few musicians whom Beethoven
admired, his eminence in the field of keyboard music—as performer, teacher,
publisher, piano manufacturer, and composer—could not be denied. Even more than
Beethoven, he had devoted himself to the sonata, publishing no fewer than 125 in all
(accompanied and solo) during the fifty years between 1771 and 1822—the same year
as Beethoven’s last sonata op.112. Within this field his range was actually
considerably wider than Beethoven’s, both historically (along with Haydn and Mozart,
he was one of the chief architects of the mature Viennese Classical style) 85 and
stylistically. Like Dr Johnson he could ‘descend to a language intelligible to the
85 The designation ‘Viennese’ is not just a courtesy; he published twelve of his most historically
significant sonatas—opp.7-10—during his first sojourn in Vienna (1780-81).
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