Georg Philipp Telemann – a jack-of-all-trades in the baroque
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767) was, like Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel, a German composer of the baroque era. And although he enjoyed international fame like hardly anyone else in the last third of his life, was able to live very well from his work and gave the music world groundbreaking new impulses, today he stands in the shadow of his two colleagues mentioned above. What a pity! In order to get to know this baroque self-made man and multitasker better, we will now set off together.
Telemann came from an educated Magdeburg pastor family. In contrast to his colleagues Handel and Bach, he could not hope for any support from his parents in his musical ambitions. On the contrary, in order to save his son from “social decline” he was forbidden to engage in music. But nothing helped. Georg Philipp was simply crazy about music as a child.
He sucked up what came his way and taught himself several instruments. Quasi “on the side” and with very good marks he attended the school at Magdeburg Cathedral and the grammar school in the old town. Already there he wrote verses in French and Latin (later in life he learned fluent Italian and English). And finally – around the age of ten – he began to compose small pieces.
He received singing lessons from cantor Benedikt Christiani, who, after a few weeks, let him teach the upper classes himself when he was prevented from doing so. Apart from a two-week (!!) instruction in piano playing, he received no further music lessons. Hard to believe, right?!
More about: https://www.blog.der-leiermann.com/en/georg-philipp-telemann/
I just recently got into Telemann's (24 March [O.S. 14 March] 1681 – 25 June 1767) works and am already flabbergasted by the amount of wonderful music this man has created in a very prolific manner.
Inspired by this I made playlists in Spotify with every piece of music by him I found there (excluding cantatas for now). I thought I would share these on this relevant day.
Chamber music without basso continuo
Chamber music for 1 instrument with basso continuo
Chamber music for 2 instruments with basso continuo
Chamber music for 3 instruments with basso continuo
Chamber music for 4 instruments with basso continuo + polish dances
If you've never heard Telemann and want to have a little taste, here's a few suggestions (feel free to add some in comments also):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehnhdbKs29U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT2mN2r8PxQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxDjb8v7tV8
Georg Philipp Telemann – a jack-of-all-trades in the baroque
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767) was, like Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel, a German composer of the baroque era. And although he enjoyed international fame like hardly anyone else in the last third of his life, was able to live very well from his work and gave the music world groundbreaking new impulses, today he stands in the shadow of his two colleagues mentioned above. What a pity! In order to get to know this baroque self-made man and multitasker better, we will now set off together.
Telemann came from an educated Magdeburg pastor family. In contrast to his colleagues Handel and Bach, he could not hope for any support from his parents in his musical ambitions. On the contrary, in order to save his son from “social decline” he was forbidden to engage in music. But nothing helped. Georg Philipp was simply crazy about music as a child.
He sucked up what came his way and taught himself several instruments. Quasi “on the side” and with very good marks he attended the school at Magdeburg Cathedral and the grammar school in the old town. Already there he wrote verses in French and Latin (later in life he learned fluent Italian and English). And finally – around the age of ten – he began to compose small pieces.
He received singing lessons from cantor Benedikt Christiani, who, after a few weeks, let him teach the upper classes himself when he was prevented from doing so. Apart from a two-week (!!) instruction in piano playing, he received no further music lessons. Hard to believe, right?!
At the age of only 12 he finally composed his first opera – Sigismundus. And his meanwhile widowed mother seemed to have completely despaired of it. She confiscated his instruments and decided to remove him from this “bad influence”. So he was sent to the school in Zellerfeld (today Clausthal – Zellerfeld) at the age of twelve, hoping to bring him to his senses.
But fate was kind to music history and to Telemann. For the superintendent there, Caspar Calvör, immediately recognized Georg Philipp’s outstanding talents and supported him in all respects. It is actually astonishing that the mother knew nothing of Calvör’s presence, or did not realise that this contact would have the opposite effect to what she had hoped for. Calvör was known far beyond the borders of his town as a theologian and universal scholar. He therefore encouraged the
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