Muzio Clementi’s preoccupation with writing keyboard music for virtuosic display was only a passing phase in his long creative life. More characteristically, many of his piano compositions reveal the profound influence of J. S. Bach. Clementi’s fugal movement from the first Sonata of his Op. 5 draws harmonic, melodic, and stylistic materials from both the Prelude and the Fugue in B-flat minor from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I. The opening slow movement of Clementi’s Op. 34, No. 2, also shows Bach’s influence through its dramatic escalation of harmonic complexities and contrapuntal technique. Bach’s influence is further attested by Clementi's possession of the autograph of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (the so-called “London Autograph”). It was this influence that led Clementi's contemporary critics to recognize the “German manner” of his music.

Works: Clementi: Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 2 (304-6), Toccata, Op. 11 (308-11), Sonata in F Minor, Op. 13, No. 6 (314-21), Sonata in G Minor, Op. 34, No. 2 (319, 322-23), Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 5, No. 1 (323-29).

Sources: Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 133 (313); Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, BWV 867, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (323-29).

Index Classifications: 1700s, 1800s

Contributed by: Tong Cheng Blackburn