Muzio Clementi, composed more than 60 sonatas for the piano alone and

half again as many for piano and violin or flute and strongly influenced the
style of piano writing.

LIFE
Childhood life[edit]
Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (baptized Mutius Philippus Vincentius
Franciscus Xaverius) was born in Rome, Italy, on 23 January 1752, and was baptized the following
day at San Lorenzo in Damaso.[2] He was the eldest of the seven children of Nicol Clementi (1720
1789), a silversmith, and Madalena, ne Caisar (Magdalena Kaiser), who was Swiss. Nicol soon
recognized Muzio's musical talent and arranged for private musical instruction with a
relative, Antonio Baroni, the maestro di cappella at St. Peter's Basilica.[3]

Education[edit]
At the age of seven Clementi began studies in figured bass with the organist Cordicelli, followed by
voice lessons from Giuseppe Santarelli. A few years later, probably when he was 11 or 12, he was
given counterpoint lessons by Gaetano Carpani. By the age of 13 Clementi had already composed
an oratorio, Martirio de' gloriosi santi Giuliano e Celso,[2]and a mass. When he was 14, in January
1766, he became organist of the parish church of San Lorenzo in Dmaso.[3]

Move to England[edit]
In 1766 Sir Peter Beckford (17401811), a wealthy Englishman and cousin of William Beckford,
twice Lord Mayor of London (and father of the novelist William Thomas Beckford), visited Rome. He
was impressed by the young Clementi's musical talent and negotiated with his father to take him to
his estate, Steepleton Iwerne, north of Blandford Forum in Dorset, England. Beckford agreed to
provide quarterly payments to sponsor the boy's musical education until he reached the age of 21. In
return, he was expected to provide musical entertainment. For the next seven years Clementi lived,
performed, and studied at the estate in Dorset. During this period, it appears, Clementi spent eight
hours a day at the harpsichord, practicing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti and Bernardo
Pasquini. His only compositions dated to this period are the Sonatas WO 13 and 14 and the Sei
Sonate per clavicembalo o pianoforte, Op. 1.[4]
Mozart used the opening motif of Clementi's B-flat major sonata (Op. 24, No. 2) in his overture
for The Magic Flute. It was not unusual for composers to borrow from one another, and this might be
considered a compliment. Though Clementi noted in subsequent publications of his sonata that it
had been written ten years before Mozart's operapresumably to make clear who was borrowing
from whomClementi retained an admiration for Mozart, as reflected in the large number of
transcriptions he made of Mozart's music, among which is a piano solo version of the Magic
Flute overture.

Teaching[edit]
From 1783, and for the next twenty years, Clementi stayed in England, playing the piano,
conducting, and teaching. Several of his students include: Johann Baptist Cramer, Ignaz
Moscheles, Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, Ludwig Berger (who went on to teach Felix Mendelssohn),
and John Field (who, in his turn, would become a major influence on Frdric Chopin).
ORATORIO- LARGE ENSEMBLE WITH ORCHESTRA OR CHOIR

San Lorenzo in Damaso is a basilica church in central Rome, Italy.

A sonatina is literally a small sonata. As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is
rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form, but is shorter and lighter
in character, or technically more elementary, than a typical sonata. [1] The term has been in use at
least since the late baroque; there is a one-page, one-movement harpsichord piece by Handel called
"Sonatina".[2] It is most often applied to solo keyboard works, but a number of composers have
written sonatinas for violin and piano (see list under Violin sonata), e.g. Sonatina in G major for
Violin and Piano by Antonn Dvok, and occasionally for other instruments, e.g. the Clarinet
Sonatina by Malcolm Arnold.

Counterpoint-----the technique of setting, writing, or playing a melody or melodies in conjunction

with another, according to fixed rules.