n are likely to live
long, and which not. But to return to Clementi. He published his first
three sonatas (Op. 2, Nos. 1-3) in 1770, the year in which Beethoven
was born; and the influence which he exerted over that master was
considerable. In Beethoven's library were to be found many sonatas of
Clementi, and the master's predilection for them is well known. The
world seldom renders full justice to men who prepared the way for
greater than themselves; Pachelbel, Boehm, and Buxtehude, the immediate
predecessors of Bach, and, again, Emanuel Bach, to whom Haydn was so
indebted, and whose works were undoubtedly studied by Beethoven, are
notable examples. This is, of course, perfectly natural: the best only
survives; but musicians who take serious interest in their art ought,
from time to time, to look back and see how much was accomplished and
suggested by men who, in comparison with their mighty contemporaries
and successors, are legitimately ranked as second-rate. Among such,
Clementi holds high place. Beethoven over-shadowed the Italian
composer; but the harsh judgment expressed by Mozart[77] has
contributed not a little, we imagine, to the indifference now shown to
the Clementi sonatas.[78] The judgment was a severe one; but Otto Jahn
relates how Clementi told his pupil Berger that, "at the period of
which Mozart writes, he devoted his attention to brilliant execution,
and in particular to double runs and extemporised passages." And,
again, Berger himself was of opinion that the sonata selected for
performance by Clementi at the memorable contest with Mozart in
presence of the Emperor Joseph the Second (December 1781), was
decidedly inferior to his earlier compositions of the same kind. The
sonata in question was the one in B flat (B. & H., No. 61; Holle, No.
37), of which the opening theme commences in the same manner as the
Allegro of the Overture to the _Magic Flute_. Mozart suffered much
from the predominant Italian influence at court, and the "like all
the Italians" in the letter just mentioned shows, to say the least, a
bitter spirit. But the letter was a private one, probably hastily
written. The judgment expressed was formed from an inferior work; in
any case, it must not be taken too seriously. Mozart, by the way, was
not the only composer who failed to render justice to his
contemporaries.

Clementi's sonatas may be roughly divided into three classes. Some he
wrote merely for the display of technique, while s