J.C. Bach, Leopold Koželuch, Muzio Clementi

Part 2 of our exploration into the history of four-hand piano music

In Part 1, we explored how Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, Charles Burney, and the Mozart family laid the foundations for four-hand piano music—transforming what might have been a parlor curiosity into a legitimate musical form. But what happened after Burney proved there was a market for this intimate new genre? The answer reveals one of music history's most remarkable commercial transformations.

Between 1777 and 1790, four-hand piano music evolved from Burney's self-financed experiment into an essential product for every major European music publisher. As we research this period for our podcast series, examining scores through IMSLP's remarkable collection of facsimiles and learning these pieces ourselves, we're discovering a story of entrepreneurship, social change, and artistic legitimization that rivals any modern startup success story.

Prefer to listen? This article is also available as a podcast episode featuring live musical demonstrations of the pieces discussed.

The Publishing Explosion

The transformation began almost immediately after Burney's January 1777 publication. Within a single year, the landscape had shifted dramatically. Johann Christian Bach—the "London Bach" who served as music master to Queen Charlotte—entered the market with his Op. 15, published in 1778. This wasn't just another composer trying a new genre; this was royal endorsement arriving with remarkable speed.

Bach's entry tells us something important about how quickly the musical establishment recognized four-hands' potential. As we work through his Op. 15 duets, we notice how different they feel from Burney's cautious experiments. Bach writes with confidence, exploiting the full keyboard range and creating genuine conversations between primo and secondo parts. The galant style—those balanced, elegant phrases—feels perfectly calibrated for aristocratic drawing rooms.

The title page of Bach's publication, which we've studied through IMSLP's facsimiles, reveals sophisticated marketing: "Four Sonatas and two Duetts for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord with Accompaniments humbly dedicated to the Right Honble the Countess of Abingdon." Bach is identified as "Music Master to her Majesty & the Royal Family," while publisher John Welcker styles himself "Music Seller to their Majesties and all the Royal Family." Every word reinforces social legitimacy. These duets weren't tucked away as minor works either—they appear as the sixth piece in Op. 15, given equal billing with his solo sonatas.

Title Page of J.C.Bach’s “Four Sonatas and two Duetts for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord”

Meanwhile, Vienna was developing its own four-hand culture. Artaria & Company, which had relocated from Mainz to Vienna in 1766, expanded into music publishing in 1778—the same year as Bach's Op. 15. Their business model targeted a different market: the emerging middle class. Using high-quality copper engraving and international distribution networks, they published both original four-hand compositions and, crucially, arrangements of symphonies and operas for home performance.

This arrangement culture deserves special attention. Before recordings, a four-hand arrangement was often the only way most people could experience orchestral music. Publishers quickly realized that four-hand arrangements would outsell orchestral scores by significant margins—the potential market included every household with a keyboard instrument, not just professional venues. We're planning to explore some of these arrangements in future podcast episodes to understand how publishers condensed orchestral textures into four hands while maintaining the music's essential character.

The Geographic Spread

By 1782, the four-hand phenomenon had spread far beyond major musical capitals. C.H. Müller in Dessau—a relatively small German city—published his "Drey Sonaten fürs Clavier als Doppelstücke für zwey Personen mit vier Händen." The lengthy German title itself suggests a need to explain this still-novel concept to regional markets. When publishers in smaller cities invest in a new genre, it signals widespread acceptance rather than metropolitan fashion.

The speed of this geographic expansion was unprecedented. Within five years of Burney's London experiment, four-hand music was being published in Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, and numerous German cities. Each market adapted the genre to local tastes—Viennese publications often featured arrangements of popular Singspiele, while London publishers favored original compositions in the galant style.

Instruments and Economics

The rapid adoption of four-hand music was inseparable from developments in keyboard instruments. As we explored in Part 1, the expansion from harpsichord to fortepiano provided the dynamic range necessary for musical dialogue. But equally important was the growth in keyboard compass—from around 45 keys to 61 or more—which finally gave two players enough room to work.

The economics are revealing. A square piano by Johannes Zumpe cost £20-25 in London—several months' wages for a middle-class family, but still attainable. These instruments offered five octaves (FF to f³), just enough for two players to share if they coordinated carefully. The more prestigious Broadwood grands, at £70-100 with 66 keys, represented a different market tier entirely.

1770 Zumpe Square Piano (source: Square Pianos)

In Vienna, the situation was similar. Stein fortepianos, favored by Mozart, cost 300-400 florins for 61 keys. Walter fortepianos offered 63 keys for 350-450 florins. These were major household investments, comparable to purchasing a carriage. For our podcast recordings of Bach and Clementi excerpts, we used a Yamaha Clavinova, which features historic fortepiano sounds including the "Mozart Piano"—a digital replica of the Walter fortepiano sound. Even through this modern interpretation, we can sense how composers were writing specifically for these instruments' distinctive capabilities.

1792 Walter Fortepiano (source: https://www.mariusbartoccini.com/fortepiano-anton-walter-1792-paul-mcnulty/ )

Here's where four-hand music proved its economic value: it essentially doubled the return on these expensive instruments. A family's piano could now serve as teaching tool, entertainment center, and social facilitator. Parents could play with children, teachers with students, and young couples could find socially acceptable proximity—all from a single investment.

Leopold Koželuch: From Salon to Concert Hall

While Bach legitimized four-hands socially and publishers recognized its commercial value, Leopold Koželuch elevated it artistically. Born in Bohemia in 1747, Koželuch moved to Vienna in 1778—the same pivotal year that saw Bach's Op. 15 and Artaria's entry into music publishing. His career trajectory is fascinating: he was actually more famous than Mozart during their lifetimes, and when Mozart died in 1791, Koželuch succeeded him as Imperial Chamber Composer.

Koželuch's most revolutionary contribution was the Concerto for Piano Four-Hands and Orchestra—the first of its kind. For our podcast, we performed sections of this remarkable work at the piano (without orchestra, naturally), and the experience was revelatory. This isn't domestic music stretched to concert proportions; it's genuinely conceived for the concert hall, treating the four-hand piano as a legitimate solo instrument deserving orchestral accompaniment.

The technical demands are considerable. Koželuch writes passages requiring genuine virtuosity and precise coordination between players. We've had the opportunity to perform this concerto with a local orchestra, and for those performances we wrote our own cadenzas—following 18th-century practice—trying to balance individual display with the collaborative spirit unique to four-hand playing. The challenge illuminated just how far the genre had evolved from Burney's cautious experiments.

His four-hand sonatas (Op. 12 with three sonatas in C, F, and D major, plus Op. 29 in B-flat) demonstrate similar ambition. These aren't teaching pieces or simple entertainment; they're serious compositions that happen to be playable at home. Koželuch essentially created a new category: concert-worthy four-hand music.

Muzio Clementi's Pedagogical Empire

If Koželuch elevated four-hands artistically, Muzio Clementi systematized it pedagogically. Born in Rome in 1752, Clementi came to England at age 14 and eventually built a remarkable musical empire encompassing performance, composition, publishing, and piano manufacturing.

His four-hand works—Op. 3 (1780) and Op. 14 (1785)—function as sophisticated teaching tools. As we work through these pieces, we're impressed by their efficiency. The secondo parts are often more complex than the primo, keeping teachers engaged while students learn. Hand crossings are minimal, textures remain clear, and each piece systematically develops specific skills: ensemble listening, rhythmic coordination, dynamic balance.

Clementi's business acumen was legendary. As his own publisher through Clementi, Banger, Hyde, Collard & Davis, he controlled the entire production chain. His "Gradus ad Parnassum" would remain a standard teaching text for over a century. The famous 1781 piano duel with Mozart at Emperor Joseph II's court—Mozart dismissively called him a "mere mechanicus"—ended in a draw according to contemporary accounts. While Mozart criticized Clementi's lack of feeling, the public clearly valued his technical mastery and pedagogical clarity.

Musical Examples: Learning Through Performance

As we prepare these works for our podcast series, each reveals different aspects of the four-hand revolution:

Johann Christian Bach's Op. 15: The facsimile edition on IMSLP reveals notably superior printing quality compared to Burney's self-financed publications. The abundance of dynamic markings—pianissimo, piano, forte appearing frequently throughout—showcases the fortepiano's expanded expressive capabilities compared to the harpsichord. Bach writes with confidence, creating genuine conversations between primo and secondo parts. The galant style feels purposeful rather than decorative, designed for social spaces where music facilitated conversation rather than demanding silent attention.

Leopold Koželuch's Concerto: When we performed excerpts for our podcast (just the two of us at one piano), the orchestral conception remained evident even without accompaniment. The writing doesn't simply divide passages between players for convenience; it creates textures that neither player could achieve alone. The development sections particularly showcase this interdependence, with themes fragmenting and recombining between the four hands in ways that anticipate Romantic-era techniques.

Clementi's Op. 14: These pieces reveal their pedagogical purpose without feeling like mere exercises. The opening movement of the C Major duet passes themes between primo and secondo in ways that teach ensemble skills while maintaining musical interest. Every element serves a dual purpose—developing technique while creating genuinely engaging music.

The Social Dimension

The intimate physical arrangement of four-hand playing had profound social implications that publishers and composers understood perfectly. The standard seating—primo (usually female) on the right, secondo (usually male) on the left—created unprecedented physical proximity between unmarried young people. Hand crossings, inevitable in many pieces, provided moments of acceptable touch in an otherwise highly regulated social environment.

Composers weren't naive about this. The carefully engineered hand crossings in many pieces from this period aren't musical necessities; they're social facilitators. When we perform these works today, we still feel that inherent intimacy—the shared breathing, the peripheral awareness of your partner's movements, the occasional accidental touch. Modern audiences lean in, drawn by the visible collaboration as much as the sound.

Timeline of Transformation

The speed of change between 1777 and 1790 remains striking:

1777: Burney self-publishes his "Four Sonatas or Duets" in London
1778: J.C. Bach publishes Op. 15 with royal endorsement; Artaria begins music publishing in Vienna
1780: Clementi publishes Op. 3 duets
1782: Four-hand music appears in regional markets like Dessau
1785: Clementi's Op. 14 advances pedagogical four-hand writing
Late 1780s: Koželuch composes the first four-hand concerto
1790s: Four-hand arrangements become industry standard across Europe

This isn't organic growth—it's a commercial and artistic revolution compressed into barely more than a decade.

The Stage is Set

By 1790, the infrastructure was complete. Publishers had proven business models. Instruments had evolved to accommodate two players comfortably. Audiences understood and craved this intimate new genre. The commercial success story we've traced—from Burney's self-financed experiment to royal endorsements, from pedagogical innovations to concert hall debuts—had created something unprecedented: a musical form that was simultaneously art, entertainment, education, and social facilitator.

The stage was now perfectly set for what would come next. Major composers of the Classical era were taking notice. Some, like Mozart, had already begun exploring the genre's artistic possibilities. Others, including Beethoven and a host of now lesser-known but equally talented composers, would soon contribute their own voices. Surprisingly, some of the era's greatest names would choose to ignore the genre entirely—a curious absence that makes the contributions of those who did participate all the more significant.

But that's a story for our next episode.

Reflections on a Musical Revolution

As we delve deeper into this repertoire for our podcast series, we're continually struck by how modern this 18th-century "startup story" feels. Entrepreneurs identified an underserved market, technology evolved to meet new demands, and smart marketing transformed a niche product into an essential category. Yet beneath the commercial success lies something more profound: the discovery that making music together creates connections impossible in solo performance.

When we sit at the piano to work through a Clementi duet or navigate Koželuch's virtuosic passages, we're participating in a tradition born from this remarkable period. These composers and publishers didn't just create a new genre; they recognized and nurtured a fundamental human desire to create beauty collaboratively.

The gold rush metaphor feels apt—there was definitely money to be made, and fortunes were built on four-hand publications. But like the actual gold rush, the real legacy wasn't the fortunes made but the communities built, the connections forged, and the new territories opened for exploration. The four-hand repertoire that exploded into existence between 1777 and 1790 gave us something precious: a musical form that makes collaboration not just possible but essential.

Our exploration continues, and we're discovering that this commercial foundation would attract some of the greatest musical minds of the Classical era—while curiously repelling others. The artistic flowering that followed this gold rush would transform four-hand piano music from profitable novelty into enduring art.

References

Primary Sources

Bach, Johann Christian. Four Sonatas and two Duetts for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord, Op. 15. London: John Welcker, 1778. (Accessed via IMSLP)
Burney, Charles. Four Sonatas or Duets for two Performers on One Piano-Forte or Harpsichord. London: Self-published, 1777. (British Library)
Clementi, Muzio. Three Duets for Keyboard in Four Hands, Op. 3. London: 1780. (Accessed via IMSLP)
Clementi, Muzio. Three Duets for Piano in Four Hands, Op. 14. London: 1785. (Accessed via IMSLP)
Koželuch, Leopold. Sonatas for Piano Four-Hands, Op. 12 and Op. 29. Vienna: Artaria, 1780s. (Austrian National Library)
Müller, C.H. Drey Sonaten fürs Clavier als Doppelstücke für zwey Personen mit vier Händen. Dessau: 1782.

Secondary Sources

Bellman, Jonathan. "The Piano Duet in the Eighteenth Century." The Cambridge Companion to the Piano, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Daub, Adrian. Four-Handed Monsters: Four-Hand Piano Playing and Nineteenth-Century Culture. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Ferguson, Howard. Keyboard Duets from the 16th to the 20th Century. Oxford University Press, 1995.
Lubin, Steven. "The Mozart Piano Duets in Historical Perspective." Piano Quarterly, vol. 32, 1984.
McGraw, Cameron. "Piano Duet Repertoire: A Guide." Indiana University Press, 2016.
Ringer, Alexander. "Beethoven and the London Pianoforte School." The Musical Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4, 1970.
Rowland, David. A History of Pianoforte Pedalling. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Todd, R. Larry. "Mozart According to Clementi: A Pianist's Composer." Perspectives on Mozart Performance, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Historical Context

Heartz, Daniel. Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720-1780. Norton, 2003.
Plantinga, Leon. Clementi: His Life and Music. Oxford University Press, 1977.
Rice, John A. Music in the Eighteenth Century. Norton, 2013.
Rosenblum, Sandra P. Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music. Indiana University Press, 1988.
Schonberg, Harold C. The Great Pianists from Mozart to the Present. Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Instrument History

Good, Edwin M. Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand. Stanford University Press, 2001.
Pollens, Stewart. The Early Pianoforte. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Ripin, Edwin M., et al. The Piano. Norton, 1988.

The Piano Duet Gold Rush: When Four Hands Made Fortunes (1777-1790s)