Six Clementi Sonatinas • Distinctive Masterworks for Piano

Muzio Clementi, a composer, teacher, conductor, publisher, and piano maker, lived a long and productive musical life. He began studying at the age of seven and within a few short years, he was appointed to a salaried church organist’s post.

He soon caught the attention of the wealthy businessman, Peter Beckford, who agreed to sponsor his education and at the age of fourteen at which time he left his home in Rome and moved into Bedford’s estate in Wiltshire, England, so the United Kingdom was where he called home for the remainder of his life.

As a young man, Clementi’s reputation as a virtuoso grew and became a much sought after teacher. He even participated in a musical competition with Mozart and played to a draw. Clementi was greatly admired by Beethoven, influencing his early work, and was thought of by many as the “Father of the Pianoforte.”

Clementi wrote over 100 piano solos in his lifetime as well as other genres including symphonies and vocal music. He authorized a number of pedagogical works including the “Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte” as well as his, “Gradus ad Parnassum” in three volumes. Muzio died a wealthy man at the unusually old age of eighty and was buried at Westminster Abbey in London.