Georg Philipp Telemann was born in Magdeburg, the son of a Lutheran deacon who died in 1685, leaving the mother to raise their three children alone. The youth showed remarkable talent in music, but was temporarily discouraged in his chosen pursuit by Puritan Lutherans, who told Telemann's mother that he would turn out no better than "a clown, a tightrope walker or a marmot-trainer." In opposition to his mother's wishes, Telemann continued to study in secrecy until she relented, allowing him to train under the highly respected Kantor Benedict Christiani, at the Old City School. Outside of some early lessons in reading tablature, Telemann was self-taught and was capable of playing the flute, violin, viola da gamba, oboe, trombone, double bass, and several keyboard instruments. Telemann began to write music from childhood, producing an opera, Sigismundus, by age 12.

His "Essercizii Musici" (The full title of this collection is "Musical Diversions) consists of 12 Solo and 12 Trio Sonatas for Various Instruments. It's practical music in more ways than one; Telemann self-published the Essercizii Musici to help pay off his wife's debts. Beyond that, it's music aimed at the lucrative market of bourgeois, amateur musicians, who passed their evenings playing music in their homes.

For this set, Telemann wrote something for each instrument commonly found in the eighteenth century German household: keyboard (harpsichord works better than its softer-voiced cousins in the ensemble pieces), violin, recorder, transverse flute, oboe, and viola da gamba. Each of those instruments is provided a pair of solo sonatas, which in most cases means that it is the featured melody instrument against continuo accompaniment (at least harpsichord and sometimes gamba as well). Only the harpsichord truly plays alone in its two sonatas, which are actually suites: a slow, singing introduction followed by a handful of dance movements, such as bourée, sarabande, gavotte, passepied, and gigue. The other solo sonatas are generally cast in the four-movement church sonata format, a series of movements with only tempo designations rather than dance titles. The first and third movements are slow and often sweet; the second and fourth movements are fast, but not virtuosic.

To achieve the greatest commercial appeal, Telemann wrote trio sonatas to accommodate almost every imaginable combination of the instruments mentioned. The Baroque trio sonata requires two melody instruments and bass accompaniment, and that accompaniment often falls to not one but two instruments: harpsichord and gamba. But Telemann does not relegate the harpsichord to an exclusively accompanimental role; several of these trio sonatas call for a standard melody instrument (flute, recorder, oboe, even gamba) with obbligato harpsichord as the second melody instrument; the continuo part then presumably falls solely to a gamba or Baroque cello, rather than a second harpsichord (a bourgeois home was not likely to have two). Most of the trio sonatas fall into the standard slow-fast-slow-fast church sonata pattern, although Telemann occasionally deviates from this, as in the three-movement Trio in F major for recorder, gamba, and continuo. Intended as it is for good amateur players, the music offers no great technical difficulties, and emphasizes charm and grace over pathos and depth of expression. Still, these are not throwaway scores; they are well crafted and cannily designed for a carefully targeted group of eager consumers.

Source: AllMusic (https://www.allmusic.com/composition/essercizii-musici -24-collection-of-sonatas-12-for-solo-instrument-with-w ithout-continuo-and-trios-12-for-various-combinations-m c0002479125 ).

Although originally created for Flute, Harpsichord & Continuo, I created this Arrangement of the Sonata in A Major (TWV 42-A6) for Winds (Flute, Oboe & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).