ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the scholarly work on Clementi that was stimulated by the bicentennial of his birth in 2002 and that has since continued to emerge in a steady flow. It examines the relationships between Clementi's meticulous preoccupation with revision and the broader spheres of piano evolution, publishing and performance practice. The book looks at the dissemination of Clementi editions throughout the European continental publishing network, a topic hitherto largely unexplored. It addresses early publications in Vienna that appeared in the final fifteen years of the eighteenth century. The book also examines the question of when, how and to what extent a distinctive British musical culture emerged, and if it does, in what terms it might be portrayed.
