A FRIEND OF THE CLEMENTIS^

C. J. Wright

O N IO March 1832 Muzio Clementi, 'The would allow him to lead the leisured life of aFather of the Pianoforte', breathed his last in gentleman scholar. It was a severe shock whenthe unlikely setting of Evesham in Worcester- he came of age to discover that his property hadshire. The 'Land without Music' had lost its been mismanaged and that he had far lessmost distinguished resident foreign composer money than he thought. In casting round forsince the death of Handel over seventy years employment the Church might have seemed anbefore. On 2 January, realizing that his life was obvious avenue for advancement, not leastdrawing to a close, he had made his will. One of because his father's cousins, the brothersthe witnesses was an Elizabeth Banks, spinster. Euseby and William Cleaver, were prominentAs his biographer Unger noticed,^ this was not clerics, ending their days as Archbishop ofthe first appearance of a Banks in dementi's Dublin and Bishop of St Asaph respectively,life. Two of his works were dedicated to a John Unfortunately, sharing not only Porson's tasteCleaver Banks. The question arises as to for the classics but also his heterodox religiouswhether there was any connection between opinions. Banks was not well qualified to followthese two and, if there was, as to what exactly them.^ Though he became a deacon in 1791, hewas their relationship to Clementi. was not ordained a priest until 14 July 1805,

There is no difficulty in identifying the latter. possibly when he took up the Curacy of EastBorn on 2 November 176[6?],^ the second son Retford.'^ For a time at least he lived atof a Leeds banker, his original name was John Kensington Gore*' but he spent his latter yearsBanks Cleaver."^ He adopted the surname Banks at Coldred, four miles from Dover, a convenientby Royal Warrant in May 1788 under the will of base for one who spent months at a time on thehis maternal grandfather, William Banks of Continent. In part these journeys could beLeeds. Sent to school at Harrow, in 1783 he presented as recreational, like his proposed visitwentuptoClareCoIlege, Cambridge. Interest- to France in 1831 to amuse himself at theingly in view of his later friendship with Bibliotheque Nationale,^^ but the true impetusClementi, while he was there he took lessons behind them was probably financial. In 1838,from the well-known Italian master Agostino though heartily sick of Paris, he found itIsola,5aMilaneserefugee who was to number 'expedient' to remain there while restrictingGray, Pitt and Wordsworth amongst his pupils.^ himself to an annual expenditure of £260 inHowever, the most important event in his order to discharge some of his debts.'^ The yearuniversity career was his introduction by Walter before he had complained of 'nearly 50 out ofWhiter the philologist, a Fellow of Clare, to 71 years-passed in incessant troubles & vexa-Richard Porson, the most eminent Grecian of tions-amongst other^ 4 or 5 Chancery Suits .his day Porson agreed to direct his studies Banks and Clementi had been friends sincewithout payment and in so doing acquired less a the 1790s. Clementi dedicated his opus 35 topupil than a disciple.^ It is characteristic that him in 1796'^ and the dedication of̂ the pianowhen Banks is mentioned in Maltby's/>flmmfl«a sonata, opus 41, followed m 1804. In 1813it is to say that he will always think well of Banks was listed as among the subscribers to theBishop Douglas for defending Porson's memory first season of concerts given by the Phii-from attack « harmonic Society, of which Clementi that year

Throughout his youth Banks had casually was one ofthe Directors.'^ In 1838 he was toassumed that his grandfather's inheritance write of 'my old and valued friend the late

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Muzio Clementi—the most distinguished House in 1797 just subsequent to his marriage.Musical Genius of his Age next to Haydn\'^ By had converted the chapel to other uses. Banksthat time Banks could claim an even closer was forced to own to a higher regard for hisrelationship with the composer. Some time son-in-law's character than his scholarship,before or in 1836'^ dementi's son Vincent had contenting himself with the remark, 'I believemarried Banks's second daughter. Bearing in he has sufficient learning to qualify him if notmind the witness to dementi's will, it is worth for tuition, at least for his Parochial Duty'."noticing that her name was Elizabeth. More to the point he added, 'I have told

Born in 1812 Vincent dementi was the elder Vincent, in case he should be fortunate enoughof dementi's sons by his second wife Emma to succeed through your Lordship's interven-Gisborne, whom the composer had married in tion that as he comes in under Whig auspices—1811 six months before his sixtieth birthday.^^ his Public conduct must be regulated accord-The boy was educated at Harrow and at ingly.' Lord Holland duly entered Vincent'sGreenwich under Charles Parr Burney, grand- name in the list he kept of whig clergymen,son of the musicologist, who carried on the though noting laconically, 'Amici gener etschool founded by his father the distinguished amicus—sed an Whiggissimus dubito Esuriensclassical scholar Dr Charles Burney. In May satis'," that is'the son-in-law of a friend and a1832, barely two months after his father's death, friend—though whether a really staunch Whighe was admitted as a pensioner at St John's I doubt, but pretty much in need'. ClementiCollege, Cambridge, migrating from there to was ordained a priest in 1839 but when LordTrinity in 1834. In 1837 he took his degree as a Holland died in October 1840 he had still donenon-reading candidate and on 17 December nothing for him. From 1841 to 1848 he held thewas ordained deacon, before taking up the curacy of Thatcham in Berkshire. On 2 Maycuracy of Chislet, a parish six miles north-east 1845 Banks himself died at Dover. He wasof Canterbury.^' Like most curates he was very seventy-nine. Seeing no future in this country,poorly paid, and while he might expect a Vincent Clementi eventually emigrated tocompetence on his mother's death he and his Canada where he lived on until 1899. Hisfamily, which by 1838 consisted of two young ecclesiastical career, as it turned out, hadchildren, found themselves in straightened scarcely been much more successful than that ofcircumstances. his improvident father-in-law.

It was at this point that Banks looked roundfor ways to help his son-in-law. As a whig and a , The author wishes to acknowledge the kindnessclassical scholar he was acquainted with Henry ofthe Editor and Mr N. Chadwick ofthe MusicRichard Vassall Fox, third Baron Holland, the Library, British Library, in bringing to hisnephew of Charles James Fox, and the centre at attention the materials cited in nn. 15-17 below.Holland House, Kensington, with his wife, the ^ ^ j ^ " ^"^^'' '^"^*''' <^̂ *''"̂ "'" ^^^^^ (Langen-famous Lady Holland, of one of the most , ff , ' ' '^'^*' P '°^ d - r.nnuentia. pol.ica, and ..terary c.rc.es of h.s ' l,^tV'Z::L:r.^^ I'̂ rMo,,̂ :;?day. Banks accordingly wrote to Lord Holland general correspondence forms British Libraryasking that he appoint the young Clementi his Add. MSS. 51821-44. At present the arrange-Chaplain or to one ofthe livings in his personal "^^"t of these volumes is only provisional. Banks'sgift or belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, of letters to Lord Holland are accordingly cited by

which Holland was Chancellor in Melbourne's f''' T^V '.''"" ^^ ^^- '"*^ ^̂ ''"̂ """" '̂̂ ^second ministry. The first request showed little ^ ^r''^) ^''^'Z Howard (ed), M,scellanea. „ , , r i j i i i i J . . . ^^"^(''('g'i'^ e' tieraldna, o\d series, uiiHif)) V

knowledge of Lord Holland who never attended ,^,, j . A. Venn, Alumn, Gantahrtg,lnses Part Hchurch and, when he was renovating Holland vol. ii (Cambridge, 1944), p. 64.

III

5 Letter to Lord Holland, 3 September 1837.6 H. P. Stokes, 'The Isola Papers. IT, The Cam-

brtdge Review, xxxvii, no. 915 {17 November1 9 1 5 ) , p . I O I .

7 Letter to Lord Holland, g October 1837.8 Recollections of the Tahle-Talk of Samuel Rogers.

To which IS added Porsomana (London, 1856), pp.

2^0i^ 304-g Letter to Lord Holland, 9 October 1837.

10 Dates given in Venn, op. cit.11 Letter to Lord Holland, 7 January 1838.12 Letter to Lord Holland, 13 December 1830.13 Letter to Lord Holland, 7 January 1838.14 Letter to Lord Holland, 25 September 1837.15 Three Sonatas [Op. 35\for the Ptano-Forte with

Accompaniments for a I'toltn and Violoncello adLibitum composed and dedicated to John Cleaver

Banks, Esq'' by Muzw Clementi (London, 1796).BL, Music Library, g.i6i.b.(3.).

16 A Sonata for the Piano Forte composed (S dedi-cated to the Rev^ John Cleaver Banks, Op. 41. byhis Friend Muzw Clementi (London, [1804.̂ ]).BL, Music Library, H. 2815. (7.).

17 Royal Philharmonic Society Papers. Subscrip-tion Lists. BL, Department of Manuscripts,Loan 48/8.

18 Letter to Lord Holland, 7 January 1838.19 Letter to Lord Holland, ig August 1836. Banks

refers here to his daughter as Mrs Clementi.20 Leon Plantinga, Clementi: His Life and Music

(London, ig77), pp. 227-g.21 Venn, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 64.22 Letter to Lord Holland, 21 May 1838.23 Add. MS. 51922A, fol. 3.

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