ClassicalMuzio Clementi
Muzio Clementi was born in Rome.
Muzio Clementi’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1752👶 Birth
Born in Rome on 23 January
- 1769🌍 Meanwhile
James Watt’s improved steam engine
- 1779🎼 Workage 27
Sonatas Op. 2, which make his name
- 1781🧳 Journeyage 29
Piano duel with Mozart before Emperor Joseph II in Vienna
- 1789🏛️ Landmarkage 37
French Revolution
- 1789🌍 Meanwhile
Storming of the Bastille: the French Revolution
- 1797🎼 Workage 45
Six Sonatinas Op. 36, still played by every student
- 1798🎩 Careerage 46
Music publisher and piano maker in London
- 1807🎩 Careerage 55
Secures Beethoven’s publishing rights in England
- 1816🌍 Meanwhile
Maelzel patents the metronome (1815–16)
- 1817🎼 Workage 65
Gradus ad Parnassum, 100 piano studies
- 1822🌍 Meanwhile
Champollion deciphers hieroglyphs
- 1832🕯️ Deathage 80
Dies in Evesham on 10 March; buried at Westminster Abbey
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Muzio Clementi was born in Rome. At fourteen a rich Englishman took him to live in England. In a country house, Muzio practised the keyboard up to eight hours a day!
He became an extraordinary pianist. In Vienna the emperor held a contest between him and Mozart: who played best? The emperor declared… a draw!
Clementi also made pianos and sold music. He wrote little sonatas, the Sonatinas, which almost every young pianist still plays today.
He is sometimes called “the father of the piano”.
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