Muzio Clementi

The Italian musician Muzio Clementi is buried in the south cloister of the Abbey, adjoining the graves of William Shield and Johann Peter Salomon. The directors of the Philharmonic Society requested his burial here. The present gravestone was laid down in 1876 and reads:

MUZIO CLEMENTI CALLED THE FATHER OF THE PIANOFORTE. HIS FAME AS A MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER ACKNOWLEDGED THROUGHOUT EUROPE PROCURED HIM THE HONOUR OF A PUBLIC INTERMENT IN THIS CLOISTER. BORN AT ROME 1752. DIED AT EVESHAM 1832.

He was born on 23rd January 1752, one of several children of Nicolo and Magdalena Clementi. He came to England and eventually to London and he performed mainly on the harpsichord until the piano became more popular. He was a contemporary of Mozart and Haydn and eventually turned from performing to composing and teaching and he travelled widely in Europe. In 1811 he married Emma Gisborne and they had four children. The Philharmonic Society invited him to be a director in 1813. He died at Evesham, near Worcester, on 29th March 1832.

Further Reading

"Clementi, his life and music" by Leon Plantinga, 1977

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography