Organized under the auspices of the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini and the Italian National Edition of Muzio Clementi's Works, and in collaboration with the journal Ad Parnassum, this conference was an opportunity to share new evidence and consider different perspectives on a multifaceted personality who animated the late eighteenth-century British musical scene. The event comprised a three-day series of single sessions and was planned and directed by Roberto Illiano, President of the Italian National Edition of Muzio Clementi's Works, and Luca Lévi Sala, Visiting Fellow at Yale University and Secretary-Treasurer of the Italian National Edition.
The first session focused on changes in keyboard performing styles at the end of the eighteenth century. Matthew Riley (University of Birmingham) discussed the use of the minor mode in Clementi's sonatas: the minor was to the composer the centre of a highly expressive field, an idea that possibly derived from the tradition of the Viennese minor-key symphony. The minor tonality provides an occasion for stormy passion and at the same time for allusion to old-fashioned idioms such as fugato and canon. The second paper, by Laura Cuervo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), investigated the changes in late eighteenth-century British keyboard performance style through an analysis of Clementi's edition of Scarlatti sonatas. This paper underlined the interest in the work of earlier composers, which progressively led in the nineteenth century to a re-evaluation of such repertoire, and the ability of Clementi to add extra value to a publication of works by another composer by the use of his own name on the title page, almost as a brand. Particularly interesting was the analysis of the dynamic indications added by Clementi, which suggest the use of a piano despite the cover indication ‘for the harpsichord or piano forte’. The diffusion of this instrument and the consequent decline of the harpsichord, especially in public performances, would be a frequent topic throughout the whole conference, and was also present in the paper presented by Jing Ouyang (Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester). Ouyang compared different treatises (from C. P. E. Bach to Dussek, Czerny and Clementi) in order to underline the importance of technical issues such as the use of legato, which derived from harpsichord performance practice; furthermore, she underlined the adoption of new fingering techniques that were needed in order to overcome the increasing difficulties found in the developing pianoforte repertoire.
After a convivial lunch break, the afternoon begun with the first keynote address, by Simon McVeigh (Goldsmiths College, University of London). McVeigh discussed the issues of cosmopolitanism and the perception of national culture in relation to Clementi, a musician ‘multinational in upbringing, European in both outlook and commercial awareness, syncretic in musical style’. He investigated the growth of a distinctive British musical culture over the course of Clementi's career, when the country's cultural life became less dependent on foreign musicians. The day concluded with a session dedicated to contemporary British music retailers and instrument manufacturers. The first paper, presented by Thomas Strange (Clinkscale Early Piano Database), discussed Clementi's involvement in the structural development of the pianoforte, with particular regard to his collaboration with Longman and Collard. Clementi promoted the structural innovations by shaping his compositions and the revisions of his own earlier works in light of the instrument's new capabilities. Patrick Hawkins (Columbia, South Carolina) and Brittnee Siemon (The Fine Arts Center, Greenville) examined Clementi's Due Canzonette for voice and keyboard accompaniment, linking the instrument's development and the consequent timbral modifications to issues of performance practice.
The second day of the conference opened with a session dedicated to the music-publishing trade in Britain and Europe. The first paper of the day was by David Rowland (The Open University, Milton Keynes), who contributed to the Clementi Opera Omnia with his critical edition of The Correspondence of Muzio Clementi (Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2010). His paper discussed the changing relationship between composers and publishers in Clementi's London. The issue of rights management was already complicating composer–publisher relationships in the 1770s: composers reacted by trying to retain control of the rights to their own works, or, otherwise, joining the publishing market themselves, as Clementi did. Rowland underlined that the publication of new editions increased the composer's visibility, and thus potentially expanded the number of pupils and concert opportunities. Matthew Spring (Bath Spa University) illustrated the development of the music trade in the town of Bath from 1780 to 1830. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw a rapid expansion of music shops in Bath, as the town became a favourite holiday residence for wealthy Londoners. Bath musicians were often personally involved in selling scores and instruments. The second morning session opened with a contribution by Majella Boland (Royal Irish Academy of Music), who investigated the role of four leading musical figures – Dussek, Field, Hummel and Moscheles – in the creation of identity in the early nineteenth-century piano concerto, with particular attention to the key factors of commercialism, gender and nationalism. Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald (Warwickshire) discussed the topic further, by focusing on the piano concertos of William Sterndale Bennett, Johann Baptist Cramer and Cipriani Potter and the influence of Mozart on these figures. Stewart-MacDonald underlined a certain restraint in the use of virtuosity by British composers compared to Continental composers, as well as a British approach to the genre that featured elements of learned counterpoint and elaborate formal experiments in finales.
The afternoon opened with a keynote address by Leon Plantinga (Yale University), author of Clementi: His Life and Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). He gave a biographical account of Clementi's success in the peculiar London social environment, with particular regard to his activity as performer and, after 1790, as teacher and entrepreneur. The following session was dedicated to the revival of early music in nineteenth-century Britain. Mark Kroll (Boston University) analysed the work of Ignaz Moscheles as performer, editor and teacher in London from 1821 to 1846. Moscheles showed a great interest in J. S. Bach, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, and contributed to the diffusion of their music. Futhermore, he laid the basis for a conscious historical approach to the earlier repertoire. Walter Kreyszig (University of Saskatchewan / Universität Wien) further underlined the legacy of Mozart in the early nineteenth-century piano repertoire, with particular reference to the output of Sterndale Bennett.
The morning of the third day of the conference centred on the progress of the complete works edition. A first contribution by Luca Lévi Sala described the present state of the catalogue of Clementi's works, compiled by Alan Tyson and published in 1967. He noted the need to overhaul and expand Tyson's catalogue, in order to create a new worklist that will reflect the recent discoveries with regard to the composer's biography and to previously unknown sources. Sala's presentation of the new catalogue project led to a roundtable session that focused on various pieces of relevant new evidence. In this session, Rowland drew attention on the sequence of editions of Clementi's treatise Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte, Op. 42 (1801), Stewart-MacDonald discussed the Viennese sonatas Opp. 7 to 10 and Illiano presented a new contribution to the complete edition, the Due Canzonette for voice and keyboard, Op.-sn 24 (WO 4). In conclusion, Sala considered a newly traced arrangement by Clementi of Haydn's Variations on Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, and the evidence connected with the genealogy of its sources. The roundtable was followed by an interesting discussion animated by Susan Wollenberg (University of Oxford), Simon McVeigh and Leon Plantinga: the conclusion was a unanimous motion that called for a crowdsourcing initiative that could contribute to the realization of the new Clementi catalogue.
Two sessions animated Thursday afternoon. The first one discussed the expanding market for pedagogical works and domestic music-making. Penelope Cave (University of Southampton) analysed Clementi's Musical Characteristics, Op. 19, a set of keyboard extemporizations that ‘characterized’ the compositional nuances of Haydn, Kozeluch, Mozart, Sterkel and Wanhal. Susan Wollenberg dedicated her paper to the Sonatina in C major Op. 36 No. 1, a work universally known by beginners on the piano and still popular nowadays. Sam Girling (University of Auckland) performed some ‘picturesque’ works by Clementi, the Waltzes Opp. 38 and 39: these pieces, written for keyboard and obbligato tambourine, were typical of a musical fashion that included the tambourine as a suitable musical instrument for the domestic amusement of young women.
The last session of the conference referred to the British musical scene that surrounded Clementi. Nicholas Molle (Université de Lorraine) explained how English professional musicians, acting effectively as a lobby group, contributed to the diffusion of Beethoven in London. My paper (Simone Laghi, Cardiff University) investigated the change of taste that took place in London during the 1790s, both in public and domestic music-making, which signalled the decline of the Italian string quartet in favour of the German model, and a broader rise of piano repertoire. Francisco Fernandez-Vicedo (Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica Victoria Eugenia, Granada) discussed the use of the clarinet in Great Britain in Clementi's time, with reference to the concertos by John Mahon and James Hook.
It must be stressed how successfully the organizers managed to arrange the conference, with the theme-based sessions covering all aspects of Clementi's activity. The event provided numerous opportunities for reflection that will eventually shape future research on the life and works of the composer, as we try to assess the (probably still underestimated) impact he had during the transition from the eighteenth- to the nineteenth-century British and European musical scene.
