This book takes as its historical point of departure the radical appearance in 1779 of technically difficult keyboard music in a set of six sonatas (Op. 2) by Muzio Clementi. The difficult passages contained in this opus are unique amongst keyboard music published for a market that was understood at the time to consist almost entirely of female amateur keyboardists. Previously actively discouraged from practicing or improving their skills due to the restrictive ideologies in place, Clementi's music increasingly affords female pianists a new kind of musical expression. Clementi and the woman at the piano: Virtuosity and the market for music in eighteenth-century London maps the social, musical, and gendered implications of technically difficult music and helps to underline important changes in Enlightenment culture and keyboard practice. Clementi's activities initiated the now familiar and modern concepts of repetitive musical practice, the work-concept, virtuosity itself, and the division between amateur and professional. Additionally, Clementi promotes a radical new mode of expression for female pianists that is at first highly controversial but slowly gains acceptance due to a widespread promotion of his music, instruments, and methods. Clementi's career is in many respects a perfect case study for the tensions between Enlightenment thinking and new Romantic ideologies.

About the Author
Erin Helyard has been acclaimed as an inspiring conductor, a virtuosic and expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano, and as a lucid scholar who is passionate about promoting discourse between musicology and performance. He is Artistic Director of the award-winning Pinchgut Opera in Sydney, Australia.

Reviews

'[I]n Erin Helyard's revelatory (and unfailingly entertaining) monograph, we find a portrait of a visionary composer, performer, teacher, publisher, piano maker and entrepreneur whose influence was, and still is, as far from pernicious as one can imagine... it's a story that proves not only thought-provoking but page-turning... Clementi and the woman at the piano will, I have no doubt, come to be seen as a major contribution not only to Enlightenment studies but to our understanding of the relationships between women, men, society, class, aesthetics and commerce in the context of a bourgeoning amateur music scene.' Will Yeoman, Limelight

'[A] welcome new feminist perspective on Clementi's achievements.' Benjamin Ivry, International Piano Magazine

'The qualities of this book go beyond the history of music and musicology in the strictest sense. With finesse and sensitivity, Helyard, who knows the sources inside out, succeeds in linking the technical revolution spearheaded by Clementi with the evolving thinking regarding the social status of women and the image of the female forte-pianist.'

Translated from French: 'Le merite de ce livre va au-dela de la musicologie a proprement parler et de l'histoire de la musique. Avec finesse et sensibilite, Helyard, qui connait fort bien les sources, reussit a etablir un lien entre la revolution technique menee par Clementi et l'evolution des mentalites sur la question du statut des femmes dans la societe et l'image desormais projetee par la forte-pianiste.' Pierre Dubois, Dix-huitieme siecle

Book Information
ISBN 9781800856257
Author Erin Helyard
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Voltaire Foundation
Publisher Liverpool University Press