Carl Czerny (1791 – 1857) was an Austrian composer,
teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose music
spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His
vast musical production amounted to over a thousand
works and his books of studies for the piano are still
widely used in piano teaching. He was one of Ludwig van
Beethoven's best-known pupils and would later on be one
of the main teachers of Franz Liszt. Czerny composed a
very large number of pieces (more than one thousand and
up to Op. 8...(+)
Carl Czerny (1791 – 1857) was an Austrian composer,
teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose music
spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His
vast musical production amounted to over a thousand
works and his books of studies for the piano are still
widely used in piano teaching. He was one of Ludwig van
Beethoven's best-known pupils and would later on be one
of the main teachers of Franz Liszt. Czerny composed a
very large number of pieces (more than one thousand and
up to Op. 861). Czerny's works include not only piano
music (études, nocturnes, sonatas, opera theme
arrangements and variations) but also masses and choral
music, symphonies, concertos, songs, string quartets
and other chamber music. The better known part of
Czerny's repertoire is the large number of didactic
piano pieces he wrote, such as The School of Velocity
and The Art of Finger Dexterity. He was one of the
first composers to use étude ("study") for a title.
Czerny's body of works also include arrangements of
many popular opera themes.
The majority of the pieces called by Czerny "serious
music" (masses, choral music, quartets, orchestral and
chamber music) remain in unpublished manuscript form
and are held by Vienna's Society for the Friends of
Music, to which Czerny (a childless bachelor) willed
his estate.
Czerny can be considered as a father of modern piano
technique for generations of pianists, when it is taken
into account that many of his students, such as Theodor
Leschetizky, Franz Liszt and Theodor Kullak, also
became teachers and passed on his legacy. The US music
magazine The Etude presented in its issue of April 1927
an illustration (see above) showing how Czerny could be
considered the father of modern piano technique and the
basis of an entire generation of pianists.
In 1842 Czerny published an autobiographical sketch,
"Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben" ("Memories from My
Life"). Other works by Czerny, apart from his
compositions, include: his edition of Johann Sebastian
Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier; "Letters to a young
lady, on the art of playing the pianoforte" ; his
"School of Practical Composition" (published as his Op.
600); his edition of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas
(1840); and "On the proper performance of all
Beethoven's works for piano" (1846).
Czerny’s musical upbringing had a clear impact on his
musical identity. The eleven piano sonatas of this
cycle demonstrate the orchestral style of Beethoven,
the brilliance and clarity of Hummel and Clementi, and
the contrapuntal genius of Bach. Czerny is able to
combine these influences into a style that is truly his
own: a unique amalgamation of Baroque, Classical, and
Romantic styles. Among Carl Czerny’s compositions
that merit analysis are his group of eleven piano
sonatas, which Czerny carefully designated with their
own numbering. Other piano works by Czerny carry the
title of sonata, such as his Sonate im Style des
Domenico Scarlatti für das Pianoforte, Op. 788, and
the Sonate militaire et brillante, Op. 119; however,
these pieces show a clear separation due to their
length, musical quality and the lack of numbering
associated with the group of eleven sonatas. The eleven
piano sonatas fall into Czerny’s category of serious
music and illustrate Czerny’s genius as a composer of
profound formal design.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Czerny).
Although originally written for solo piano. I created
this Arrangement of the Sonata in the Style of Domenico
Scarlatti (Opus 788) in F# Minor for String Quartet (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
