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Telemann’s Travels: The Eclecticism, Diversity, and Virtuosity of Telemann

“Lully is praised, Corelli has a name: Telemann alone is above all fame.” - Johann Mattheson, 1740 Georg Philipp Telemann, a composer who is appallingly underrated today, was among the most celebrated composers of the 18th century. When City Councilor Platz announced the appointment of J.S. Bach as Cantor for the churches in Leipzig in 1723, his pronouncement stated “Since the best man could not be obtained, mediocre ones would have to be accepted.” While no one would refer to Bach by such insulting words today, Platz’s “best man” was none other than Telemann himself - godfather to Johann Sebastian’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. J.S. Bach would direct the Collegium Musicum that Telemann started that would be the direct predecessor of the Gewandhaus concerts, making it among oldest continuous concert-giving organization in the world. Telemann composed approximately 1700 sacred cantatas, 50 secular cantatas, 50 Passions, hundreds of other various choral works as well as nearly 50 operas across three decades. One area where Telemann was exceptionally prolific was in the area of instrumental music: composing approximately 125 orchestral suites, 125 concerti, 40 quartets, 130 trios, 145 works for keyboard, 87 solos and 80 works for one to four instruments without bass. While Hamburg is customarily associated with Telemann, he travelled widely to Berlin, as well as to Paris where he absorbed French idioms that were very much in vogue. Exemplifying a cosmopolitan sensibility, Telemann was influenced by a variety of various national styles: French, Italian and Polish. In 1705, Telemann was appointed Kapellmeister to the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau (now Żary in modern Poland). While French and Italian music were in vogue at court, Telemann was influenced by Polish oral musical traditions. This appointment was to be short-lived: with an impending invasion by the Swedish army, the court was hurriedly disbanded. This did not prevent Polish music having a profound effect on Telemann’s compositions, however. In his 1718 autobiography, Telemann claims that he ‘clothed’ the Polish style ‘in an Italian dress,’ evidenced the finales of both the concerto for recorder and viola da gamba, and the concerto for Recorder and Baroque flute. Fantasia No.7 in D-Major for Flute without Bass, TWV 40:2-13 Fantasie in C-Major for Harpsichord, TWV 33:14 Intrada, nebst burlesquer Suite in D for 2 Violins 'Gulliver's Travels' from Der getreue Music-Meister, TWV 40:108 Among Telemann works for solo instruments, he composed his Twelve Fantasias for Flute (Hamburg, 1732-1733), 36 Fantasias for keyboard (1733-1734) as well as 12 solo fantasias for the violin (1735). Unusual among these works is the Intrada, nebst burlesquer Suite in D, published in his Der getreue Musik-meister only 2 years after Jonathan Swift’s 1726 book Gulliver’s Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.

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Opening with an Intrada, Telemann continues with a Chaconne of the Lilliputians, which is written in 3/32 time in a score of miniscule notes, of which only the performers are aware of the visual joke. The humor continues into the next dance where the Brobdignagian giants are represented in 24/1 time, a contrasting gigue. This is followed by the Daydreams of the Laputians and their attendant flappers, concluding with a Loure of the well-mannered Houyhnhnms & Wild dance of the untamed Yahoos bringing the suite to a charming conclusion. Concerto in a-minor for Recorder, Viola da Gamba, Strings & Continuo, TWV52:a1 The only concerto by del Sigr. Teleman for recorder, viola da gamba, strings & continuo, TWV52:a1 survives in a hand-written score preserved in the Hessiche Landes-und Hochschulbibliothek in Darmstadt. Although the manuscript is undated, the work appears to correspond to stylistic conventions from his Frankfurt period (1712-1721). Opening with a French-style overture, the second movement typifies the Italian ritornello form with lengthy solo passages for the soloists. The pastoral third movement removes the influence of the upper strings and the viol and recorder duet with little but the continuo before an energetic closing movement. Telemann’s use of the viol is particularly unique in comparison to J.S. Bach, whose use of the viol, beyond significant solos in the Matthaüs-Passion, Johhannes-Passion and several cantatas, is restrained to 3 gamba sonatas and the sixth Brandenburg Concerto. Telemann, by contrast, while including the viol in cantatas and oratorios, created a significant body of instrumental music for the viol, in a period as the instrument’s popularity was waning in Europe. Telemann published unaccompanied duets and a sonata for viola da gamba in Der getreue Music-Meister, 12 Fantasias for the Viola de Gamba (now lost) and composed various sonatas, concerti, a Concert Suite in D-major for Viola da Gamba, Strings & Continuo (TWV55:D18), as well as the Six quatuors and the Nouveaux quatuors. Concerto No.2 in D-Major, TWV 43:D1 from Six quatuors a violon, flute, viole ou violoncello et basse continue (Hamburg, 1730, Paris 1736) Quartet No.2 in a-minor from Nouveaux quatuors en six suites a une flute traversiere, un violon, une basse de viole ou violoncelle et basse (Paris, 1738) While reflecting the influences of Corelli’s Italian sonatas and concerti, as well as Lully’s French suites, these quartets were also forward-looking to the galant style. From Telemann’s autobiography of 1739, it is known that his Paris Quartets were performed by some of the preeminent Parisian musicians of the day such as the flautist Blavet, violinist Guignon, gambist Forqueray (the Younger) and cellist Edouard. Featuring the unique instrumentation of flute, violin, viol and continuo, the 1730 quartets were so popular, in the French capital and elsewhere that Telemann traveled to Paris in 1737 for eight months, partly because his music was being pirated by unauthorized Parisian publishers. First published in Hamburg in 1730, the Six quatuors were re-engraved by Le Clerc of Paris in 1736, and received a Privilege du Roi for twenty years- an honor rarely bestowed on foreigners. The Nouveaux Quartours hailed an impressive subscription list that boasted some of the most celebrated musciians of the day: ‘Messrs. Blavet and Mondonville de Paris, Fasch de Zerbst, Pisendel de Dresden’ and ‘Mr. Bach de Leipzig.’ Even with such illustrious patrons aross Europe, 137 of the 237 subscriptions originated in France, where they were widely performed and often praised, exemplified in reviews in the journal Le Mercure de France. Concerto in e-minor for Recorder, Baroque Flute, Strings & Continuo, TWV52:e1 In an autobiographical statement written in 1718, Telemann commented: “I also tried my hand at concertos. About this I must confess that they have never come from my heart, although I have already written a considerable quantity of them.” As with the concerto for recorder and viol, and in contrast with the concerto’s more recent Italian formal structure of fast-slow-fast, in this concerto, Telemann opts for the older sonata da chiesa form (slow-fast-slow-fast), although there is little that is old-fashioned in Telemann’s concerti. Germany was slower to adopt the transverse flute over what is now called the recorder. With both instruments both capable of similar facility, they exude a subtle differences in timbre, something that Telemann exploited this to great effect, particularly in the conversational slow movements. A piece that

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demonstrates a synthesis of high-Baroque polyphonic style and that of the homophonic galant, this concerto incorporates Polish music, especially in the conclusion. In the finale, listeners will hear a cross between the French Rondeau with the Polish polonaise and mazurka, complete with bagpipe-like drones, bringing both the concerto, and indeed the concert, to an energetic conclusion.

- Dr. Phillip W. Serna, May 2013, Plainfield, IL