Johann Baptist Cramer
was born on 24.02.1771 in Mannheim, Germany, and died on 16.04.1858 in
Kensington, London. His father, Wilhelm Cramer, was a violinist (a student
of J. Stamitz), a conductor and a composer. In London he was Director of the
Royal Chamber Music and also concertmaster at the opera. His mother,
Angelique, was a singer and pianist.
In 1774 he joined
his father in London. His first musical education was with his father but he
soon took piano tuition with Johann Samuel Schröter and music theory with
Karl Friedrich Abel. After his first public performance as a 10-year-old he
mostly played in “Professional Concerts” conducted by his father.
Of great significance
for Cramer’s later career was his piano instruction under Muzio Clementi. A
notable event on the London concert calendar was a performance by Clementi
with his famous student Johann Baptist Cramer. Together they played a piece
by Clementi for two pianos. Later Cramer played pieces for 4 hands in
concert with Franz Liszt. By the turn of the century Cramer was without
doubt one of the leading piano virtuosos in Europe, alongside Clementi and
Dussek. His transparent, polyphonic playing earned him the name “Best Piano
Quartet Player”.
From 1788 to 1791
Cramer went on his first trip to the Continent, visiting Vienna and Paris.
In Vienna he renewed his acquaintanceship with Haydn, whom he had previously
met in London, and he also got to know Beethoven. This encounter was in many
ways productive and inspiring for both musicians.
In 1824, together
with R. Addison and T. Fr. Beale, J. B. Cramer founded a publishing house
which still exists in London today under the name of J.B. Cramer & Co. Ltd.
Apart from chamber
music for the piano, including 2 piano quartets and 2 piano quintets,
Cramer composed exclusively for the piano: 127 piano sonatas, 33 variations,
39 rondos, 12 fantasies, 5 capricci, 4 impromptus, 4 nocturnes, 50 morceaux.
Piano pieces for 4 hands include 2 sonatas, 12 études “en forme de
nocturnes” and a grand duet for 2 pianos.
J.B. Cramer was not
the first to introduce the term Étude into music teaching literature, but he
did give this genre a particular musical direction. Altogether Cramer
composed at least 375 études: The 84 études opus 50 (5th part of
the Grand School for the Pianoforte) was widely used. The Common Edition by
Hans von Bülow reduced these to 60. The complete edition of 84 études was
published by 9 different companies, proving how immensely popular they were.
According to Robert
Schumann, J.B. Cramer’s 84 études are “a general education for hand and
mind”. Certainly, they are more than simply practice pieces. Their
expressive musical content puts them in the category of lyrical piano pieces
(character pieces) and they are an important preliminary to F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s
“songs without words”. Ludwig van Beethoven held the études in high esteem
and used them for his nephew’s piano instruction.
English
translation by Gail Dovey-Krause
