Monday, June 6, 2011

Muzio Clementi's life and music

Muzio Clementi

The classical period in music was during 1750-1820.  The famous composers that played during this time are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Josef Haydn, and Muzio Clementi.  The classical period composers were the first to write for the piano and are best known for piano music.

Muzio Clementi was born on January 24, 1752 in Rome.  He was an Italian composer and pianist, and was the first to write specifically for piano.  He played in the church when he was nine years old and was invited to study piano when he was fourteen years old.  Some people even considered him to be the best pianist in his time.  Clementi also created a great relationship with Mozart.  He was asked to a duel with Mozart by the emperor and the emperor considered it a tie.  After that, Mozart took a melody from Clementi's piece and used it in his song, The Magic Flute.

Clementi is best known for his piano sonatas, sonatinas, and some etudes. A sonata is music made for instruments. A sonata usually has three or four movements.  Clementi composed more than one hundred piano sonatas.  His sonatas have hard and long passages.  Some of the easier sonatas were later called sonatinas.  A sonatina is a small sonata.  Clementi is an important person in the history of music. 

I will now play the first movement of Sonatina 3 Op 36 No. 3 by Clementi.




Did you like the song?
Did you hear any hard and long passages?