Carl Czerny was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist, renowned for his pianoforte studies and exercises.
Background
Carl Czerny was born on 21 February in 1791 in Vienna (Leopoldstadt) and was baptized in St. Leopold parish. His parents were of Czech origin; his mother was Moravian. His parents spoke the Czech language with him. Czerny came from a musical family: his grandfather was a violinist at Nymburk, near Prague, and his father, Wenzel, was an oboist, organist, and pianist. When Czerny was six months old, his father took a job as a piano teacher at a Polish manor and the family moved to Poland, where they lived until the third partition of Poland prompted the family to return to Vienna in 1795.
Education
Carl studied piano, first with his father, Wenzel Czerny, and later with Ludwig van Beethoven and knew and was influenced by Muzio Clementi and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
Career
Czerny renounced the career of virtuoso and from 1815 on devoted all his energies to teaching and to composition. Music was the sole interest of his life. He was an only child, and he never married. As a teacher he attained a reputation unexcelled in his time. His greatest pupil was Franz Liszt, but there were few pianist celebrities in the early 19th century who did not come under his guidance. Czerny's principal contribution as a composer rests on his pedagogical works, although he by no means confined himself to these; indeed, he essayed almost every form of composition - masses, requiems, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, songs, and much miscellaneous piano music. His works number nearly 1, 000, with many containing 50 or more separate pieces in a single opus. He also wrote School of Composition, Chronological Sketch of the History of Music, and an autobiography. Though most of this huge output has proved ephemeral, such examples of Czerny's pedagogic genius as the Daily Exercises, the School of Velocity, and the School of Finger-Virtuosity have remained permanent invaluable assets to pianists and teachers of the piano, for the technical problems to which they provide the solution still face each successive generation of piano students. Czerny's health declined after 1850, but he continued his musical activities until a few weeks before his death in Vienna on July 15, 1857.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
In 1819, the father of Franz Liszt brought his son to Czerny, who recalled:
"He was a pale, sickly-looking child, who, while playing, swayed about on the stool as if drunk. .. His playing was. .. irregular, untidy, confused, and. .. he threw his fingers quite arbitrarily all over the keyboard. But that notwithstanding, I was astonished at the talent Nature had bestowed upon him. "
Connections
Carl never married and had no near relatives.
