Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) Telemann was the greatest German composer of the first half of the eighteenth century – at least that’s what they thought at the time. Nowadays his friend and colleague J.S. Bach (who became cantor at Leipzig only because Telemann turned it down) is regarded as infinitely superior, while Telemann is treated as an overproductive and superficial also-ran. He was certainly incredibly prolific, writing among other things about forty operas, forty-six Passions and five complete cycles of cantatas for the Lutheran liturgical year. And there’s some justice to the charge of superficiality: able to write in pretty well any style that was demanded of him, he wrote no single work that stands out distinctly as his own. Yet, at its best, the music of Telemann has a bright melodiousness that looks forward to that of Haydn and Mozart. Telemann was born at Magdeburg into an affluent middle-class family. His father and brother, like several of his ancestors, were clergymen, and despite showing musical aptitude from an early age (he wrote his first opera aged twelve), Georg Philipp was intended for a similarly respectable career. In 1701 he went to the University of Leipzig to study law, but once his musical talents were discovered by others it was impossible for him to do anything else. He founded the Collegium Musicum (a society that gave public concerts, and which Bach later directed), became organist of the Neue Kirche, then director of the Leipzig Opera, and so dominated the city’s musical life that its ostensible music director, Johann Kuhnau, became extremely irritated. Telemann left Leipzig in 1705, and after positions at Sorau and Eisenach became music director of the city of Frankfurt, and Kapellmeister of the Barfusserkirche (church of the Barefoot Friars). He was there for nine years, from 1712 to 1721, before being invited by the city of Hamburg to be cantor of the Johanneum, the grammar school, and to be responsible for music at the city’s five principal churches. A dispute with the civic authorities led to his applying for the Leipzig cantor’s job in 1722, but things were patched up (his salary was increased) and he remained at Hamburg until his death, when he was succeeded in the post by his godson, C.P.E. Bach. Orchestral Music In Telemann’s time the dominant orchestral forms were the concerto and the orchestral suite, which was made up of a French-style overture and a series of formalized dance movements. One of Telemann’s employers, Count Erdmann II of Promnitz, distinctly favoured the French style of music and Telemann consequently composed several suites for him. It was while at the count’s court at Sorau that he came into contact with the indigenous music of Upper Silesia, and folk elements – both rhythmic and instrumental – became a feature of his music throughout the rest of his career. In his concertos the influence is more Italian than French, with the model of Vivaldi particularly apparent in the way he frequently employs quite strange combinations of instruments as the solo group – for example, the delightful Grillen-Symphonie, in which a double bass, a piccolo and a chalumeau (an early clarinet) combine with a string quartet to startling effect
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 02:05:52 +0000
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