Waltz (after Beethoven)
Muzio Clementi (1801)
Description
A piece after Beethoven. When this method appeared in 1801 Beethoven was thirty, an active composer working in Vienna; the sonata known as the Moonlight, Op. 27 No. 2, dates from the same year. That the collection draws not only on past masters but on a living contemporary is what sets it apart.
In D major and triple meter: 692 notes and around eighty seconds, which puts it among the busier pieces here. It is called a waltz, though it bears itself less like the whirling dance of the nineteenth century than like a plain piece in three. The right-hand melody leads and the left hand carries the meter.
A beginner piece. With this many notes, trying to play fast unsettles the pulse — and a waltz turns on the weight of its first beat, so once that pivot wavers the whole thing goes. Keep the left hand's downbeat constant and lay the right hand over it.
A piano method Clementi published in 1801, comprising 50 lessons that arrange famous Baroque and Classical works for solo piano.
Browse all songs in Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Piano Forte Op.42 →Sheet Music
Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Muzio Clementi was born in Rome and moved to England while still young, building a career in London as a pianist, composer, and instrument manufacturer. Often called the "father of the pianoforte," he wrote the study collection Gradus ad Parnassum and numerous sonatinas that remain staples of piano pedagogy. This site includes pieces from his Op. 42 tutor, built on "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" and melodies by Haydn and Mozart, along with movements from the Sonatina, Op. 36, No. 1.
View all works by Clementi →