Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/110

98

Muzio Clementi is known to so many in the present day as merely a composer of sonatinas and of a series of études, that we fail to realize his true place in musical history.

He was born in Rome in 1752. By the time he was fifteen he was well known in his native city as a player and composer. He attracted the attention of an Englishman who carried him off to England to give him a broader education. There he soon became the most prominent musician of his day. His was the first music that was composed for the pianoforte, and it was on his works that the modern school of piano playing was founded.

When he was visiting Vienna, the Emperor Joseph arranged for a musical duello between Mozart and Clementi, but they were so equally great as performers that it could not be decided who was the superior.

Later in life he bought an interest in a London firm of instrument makers and music publishers, and by his energy, business talents, and economical habits succeeded in accumulating a large fortune in spite of various business reverses.

Speaking of Clementi's economy reminds us of a story told of him by Spohr. That entertaining writer met him and John Field, his pupil, in St. Petersburg, where Clementi did a large business and where Field made a name for himself as a composer. One day Spohr called on them and found teacher and pupil at the wash-tub, washing their stockings and other linen. They did not suffer themselves to be disturbed, and "Clementi advised me," writes Spohr, "to do the same, as washing in St. Petersburg was not only very expensive, but the linen suffered much from the method used in washing it."