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 t...(+)
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.
Although originally created for Flute, Harpsichord &
Continuo, I created this Arrangement of the Sonata in C
Major (TWV 42:C1) for Flute, Oboe & Strings (2 Violins,
Viola & Cello).
PARTITION