Both as a professional musician and as a businessman, he enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity. Born at Mannheim, Germany, on February 24, 1771, of musical German lineage - his father being a distinguished violinist, his grandfather a noted flautist - he was taken the following year to London, where his father settled permanently.

Cramer's Studies for Pianoforte are those of his works wherein the composer yet lives and labors among us. They are still looked upon as indispensable.