Scan 48
The New Grove Dictionary Of Music And Musicians 5 Ed. 2nd, 1904
108 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Johann Baptist Cramer pastel portrait (1844) by Fanny Salabert (Royal College of Music, London)
3grace, elegance and clarity. His music is generally less dramatic than Clementi's, less rich than Dussek's, less sentimental than Field's. The originality of his genius appears principally in his combination of a conservative bias with the most advanced, idiomatically pianistic passage-work. Although there is an inconsistency in the quality of his works that was observed even by critics of his day, his music is nearly always skillful, pleasant and sophisticated, and his ingenuity in passage-work expanded the vocabulary of colourful and evocative sonorities available to the piano.
5Cramer's affinity for certain Classical ideas did not prevent him from assimilating the newer musical forms that became popular in the early 19th century, and his own work accurately reflects the changing tastes of the period. Nearly all his 124 sonatas, for example, were written before 1820, and his production of didactic works, capriccios, fantasias and small pieces based on popular tunes increased markedly after 1810. He supplied so much music for the dilettante that by the end of the century his name was used in France as a pseudonym for musical trifles.
7Of all Cramer's works, the one that has had the greatest enduring value is his celebrated set of 84 studies for the piano, published in two sets of 42 each in 1804 and 1810 as Studio per il pianoforte. This collection has long been considered a cornerstone of pianistic technique and is the only work of Cramer's that is generally known today. Clementi claimed for himself the idea of such a comprehensive technical volume, accusing Cramer of having stolen the idea and title for the Studio. Cramer's work inspired many similar efforts, some being mere imitations. Soon after its appearance, Steibelt and Wölfl produced sets of studies, and Clementi eventually published his Gradus ad Parnassum. Nevertheless Cramer's Studio was the most widely used and admired collection in the early 19th century. Beethoven annotated 21 of the studies for his nephew's use (published in an edition by J. S. Shedlock in 1893) and considered them 'the best preparation for his own works'. Schumann described the Studio as the finest training 'for head and hand'. The studies are structurally simple, each is based on a characteristic pattern or mechanical problem, and although the shadows of Bach and Domenico Scarlatti are often apparent, the harmonic colouring and figural variety in the Studio are eminently modern and entirely suited to the piano. The success of the studies led Cramer to produce many more methods, including the Anweisung das Pianoforte zu spielen, which includes rules for fingering and the use of the pedals. Some of the later studies were given individual descriptive titles, in keeping with the fashion, but none of them matched the Studio in usefulness and artistic merit.
9The scope and seriousness of Cramer's compositions often varies widely within a single category, even among the sonatas and concertos the range is considerable. The best of the shorter pieces anticipate the general features of the character piece in form and expressiveness, while many works were plainly directed to the unsophisticated amateur. The sonatas, in spite of their diminishing numbers in Cramer's later years, contain some of his most impressive achievements. There is some evidence that Beethoven occasionally borrowed from Cramer's sonatas, and Schumann considered Cramer and Moscheles the only outstanding sonata composers of their generation.
11The accompanied sonatas, which comprise less than half the total number, are generally lighter and more popular in character than the solo sonatas. After 1800 Cramer showed a clear preference for solo works, although some of the later solo sonatas still have some popular features, such as the inclusion of 'favourite airs'. The sonatas written after 1810 are more consistently serious and contain more prominent Romantic characteristics. Several have descriptive titles (Il mezzo, Le retour a Londres) and a highly flexible, dramatic approach to the use of compass and texture. In harmonic daring they show the impact of Beethoven, and they abound in sweeping, colouristic accompanimental patterns. Cramer's late sonatas were occasionally reprinted in the 19th century, but they have passed into obscurity in more recent times.
13WORKS
14(First published in London unless otherwise stated)
16<table>
17 <tr>
18 <th>SONATAS</th>
19 <th>title</th>
20 <th>dedicatee</th>
21 </tr>
22 <tr>
23 <td>3</td>
24 <td>(g, F, D), pf/hpd (1788)</td>
25 <td></td>
26 </tr>
27 <tr>
28 <td>3</td>
29 <td>(C, D, Fg), nos 1 2 for pf, fl, no 3 for pf, vn (c1788)</td>
30 <td></td>
31 </tr>
32 <tr>
33 <td>3</td>
34 <td>(F, A, Bb), pf, vn, vc (1788), d Middleton</td>
35 <td></td>
36 </tr>
37 <tr>
38 <td>4</td>
39 <td>(D, Fp, F), pl, vn ad lib (before 1809)</td>
40 <td></td>
41 </tr>
42 <tr>
43 <td>5</td>
44 <td>3, pf, vn, vc, 'lost'</td>
45 <td></td>
46 </tr>
47 <tr>
48 <td>6</td>
49 <td>4 (D, c, F, a), pl/hpd ('c1795), d Bethune</td>
50 <td></td>
51 </tr>
52 <tr>
53 <td>7</td>
54 <td>3 (D, G, F), pl (1792), d Clementi</td>
55 <td></td>
56 </tr>
57 <tr>
58 <td>8</td>
59 <td>2 (F, G), pf ('c1793), d Mackworth</td>
60 <td></td>
61 </tr>
62 <tr>
63 <td>9</td>
64 <td>3 (D, F, C), pl, vn/fl, vc ad lib (1793), d d'Anvers</td>
65 <td></td>
66 </tr>
67 <tr>
68 <td>11</td>
69 <td>3 (D, A, G), pl, vn, vc ad lib (1796), d Byng</td>
70 <td></td>
71 </tr>
72 <tr>
73 <td>12</td>
74 <td>3 (C, A, Bb), pl, vn, vc ad lib (1796), d Smith</td>
75 <td></td>
76 </tr>
77 <tr>
78 <td>13</td>
79 <td>3, pf (before 1809), t Sonatas</td>
80 <td></td>
81 </tr>
82 <tr>
83 <td>14</td>
84 <td>3 (F, Eb, D), pl, vn, vc (c1796), d East</td>
85 <td></td>
86 </tr>
87 <tr>
88 <td>15</td>
89 <td>3 (G, Bb, C), pf, vn, vc ad lib (1797), d Clark</td>
90 <td></td>
91 </tr>
92 <tr>
93 <td>18</td>
94 <td>3 (C, D, C), pl, vn, vc (c1799), d Welch</td>
95 <td></td>
96 </tr>
97 <tr>
98 <td>19</td>
99 <td>3 (Bb, D, A), nos.1 2 for pf, vn, vc, no 3 for pf (1799), d Reid</td>
100 <td></td>
101 </tr>
102 <tr>
103 <td>20</td>
104 <td>2, no 1 for pf, vn, no 2 for pf (c1800)</td>
105 <td></td>
106 </tr>
107</table>
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