Music and Musicians

From performance and composition to instrument-making, Clementi left his mark on British and European classical music.

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) came from Rome to England as a boy, to become one of the most prolific of British composers, and an internationally respected teacher and performer. An able businessman, he also turned a bankrupt firm of London instrument-makers into a Europe-wide success.

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In encouraging women into music, Alice Mary Smith thought promises of ‘greatness’ counterproductive.

‘Why are there no great female composers?’ asked the Victorians. But Alice Meadows White, née Smith (1839-1884), never afraid to voice a challenging opinion, believed that the excited demand for a ‘great’ female composer was actually discouraging a potential host of good ones.

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Despite setback after setback, Stanford was determined to hear his music played in public.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford had to wait five resolute years to hear his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor played in public, a disappointment bound up with the tragedy of the ‘Lusitania’.

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A shy and unmusical stable-hand suddenly began to sing wise and moving hymns.

In 657, a monastery was founded in Whitby, in the Kingdom of Northumbria. It gave employment to several labourers, including an elderly stable-hand named Caedmon who would do anything to avoid singing.

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The simple melody of the United Kingdom’s national anthem has stirred the souls of some great composers.

‘God Save the King’ was an eighteenth theatre song composed to keep English hearts strong in the face of a Scottish rebellion whipped up by France. Later, it was hailed across oppressed Europe as the anthem of popular liberty, and became one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s favourite tunes.

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The most important English-born composer of Handel’s day, known for his tuneful music and very busy diary.

Though little-known today, Charles Avison (1709-1770) led a busy life composing, teaching and giving daily concerts in North East England, justly gaining a reputation as the 18th-century’s finest English-born composer.

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