Georg Philipp Telemann & Bach
Discussions - Part 3

Continue from Part 2

Bach BWV 160 anhang - Jauchzet dem Herrn - help sought

Russell Telfer wrote (October 12, 2009):
My colleague in the Dorset Bach group would like to find sources of BWV 160 Anh from which to obtain the score. Ideal would be a score out of copyright, but failing that, a proprietary source will be needed for our own study of it.

Can anyone offer any leads? With thanks.

Juliane Mincham wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Russell Telfer] google in the link below. It takes you to a vast resource of scores which are out of copright and can be accessed, copied and used.

I don't use it for Bach as i have my own Barenreiter Urtext edition and have only briefly glanced at the Bach scores on this site but I think there may be one disadvantage in that with the old editions they use, I think they make use of the antequated tenor and soprano clefs.

But if you want a score to go over in a hurry you can certainly get one there.

Piano and vocal scores are, as I'm sure you know already, on Aryeh's website.

imslp/petrucci music library

Guilherme Almeida wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Julian Mincham] What's that website again?

Juliane Mincham wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Guilherme Almeida] its on the bottom of my original message--still there if you look down on that, and this page.

Russell Telfer wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Julian Mincham] Thanks for the email and the link, Julian.

We're (DBCC) doing this in February, so it's not a rush job. I've found the Petrucci site and am about to explore it.

When you mention Aryeh's collection of vocal scores, I don't think it includes 160a. BWV 160 is a Telemann work, and 160a is an obscure 8 part J S Bach motet. I will know more about this in due course - pushing the envelope, as the smarties might call it.

The San Francisco Bach Choir, their website tells me, performed it in 1997, and they have provided a copyright translation online. I also see that my Hanssler edition of the full set includes 160a, so that's something else to look forward to.

I might have more to add in a few days.

Aryeh Oron wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Russell Telfer] BWV Anh 160 does have a page on the BCW.
See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWVAnh160.htm
In this page you can find to:
- Links to the original German text + English translation (I hope that Francis Browne would also provide his translation)
- Details of 6 recordings, all of them are commercially available.

I hope it helps.

Russell Telfer wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Aryeh Oron] Thanks Aryeh

I hadn't found it up to date, but it's new ground for me. I'm glad to be proved wrong.

Russell Telfer wrote (October 12, 2009):
[To Aryeh Oron] Could you please give me the link for pages on BWV 160a? I've tried scores and cantatas without success.

Many thanks,

Telemann Autobiography

Aryeh Oron wrote (October 14, 2009):
Following Kim Patrick Clow's initiative, Thomas Braatz contributed his translation of Telemann's autobiography from Mattheson's Ehren-Pforte (Hamburg, 1740).
See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/TelemannEPMattheson.pdf
Linked from:
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/index.htm
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Telemann-Georg-Philipp.htm
and other pages.

Georg Philipp Telemann speaks directly to us and tells us with choice words in his own clever and easy-to-read writing style about the wondrous coincidental events in his life, particularly in regard to musical matters. There are some important connections parallels with Bach's life.

Meidad Zaharia wrote (October 15, 2009):
[To Aryeh Oron] Thanks Aryeh,

I love Telemann and I regard his Tafelmusik as the closest composition to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos even if Tafelmusik suggests a name which indicates that the music was written for dinner entertainment.

Thanks...

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (October 15, 2009):
Meidad Zaharia wrote:
< Thanks Aryeh,
I love Telemann and I regard his Tafelmusik as the closest composition to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos even if Tafelmusik suggests a name which indicates that the music was written for dinner entertainment. >
Many, many thanks to Thomas Braatz's hard work on this. I don't believe there isn't an complete English translation available in print, so having this resource at your fingertips is really quite remarkable; and I can't say enough nice things about it. Herr Braatz's explanations in the footnotes are quite extensive and noteworthy. Telemann's German (I'm told) has a wonderful sense of humor, but can be very idiomatic at times (e.g. the phrase "Cloak Years" is very arcane for even native Germans). There are quite a few surprises in store when you read the biography, as I discovered myself
;)

Again, thank you Thomas and Aryeh on this important contribution to the Bach website.

Neil Halliday wrote (October 15, 2009):
From the article on Telemann (thanks to Aryeh and Thomas):

>Finally, in Sorau, I (ie, Telemann) was able to make a connection with the famous cantor, Wolfgang Caspar Printz. He presented himself as a kind of Heraclitus and I as a Democritus, for he mourned bitterly over the excesses of composers with emphasis on melody at the same time just I ridiculed the artificial, unmelodic affectations of the older masters. Since he still maintained the hope that I would depart from the confusion and nonsense of the former [emphasis upon the melodic element over the contrapuntal]....<

No doubt this view (of Telemann's) is one reason why Telemann was more popular than Bach at the time; however, history has the judged the supreme contrapuntalist (Bach) the greater composer.

[Aside: It is odd that Printz describes an emphasis on melody as "confusion and nonsense"; one would expect it more likely that contrapuntal music would attract this description, in disparagement - have I read the above quote correctly?].

Still, what an amazing prodigy he (Telemann) was!

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (October 15, 2009):
Neil Halliday wrote:
< No doubt this view (of Telemann's) is one reason why Telemann was more popular than Bach at the time; however, history has the judged the supreme contrapuntalist (Bach) the greater composer. >
Oh, I think there was a lot of reasons why that happened. And of course, if you meant by "history" you mean musicologists in the vein of Spitta and other old fashioned 19th century musicologists that judged Bach the "greater composer," then sure. I'd agree with your statement.

< [Aside: It is odd that Printz describes an emphasis on melody as "confusion and nonsense"; one would expect it more likely that contrapuntal music would attract this description, in disparagement - have I read the above quote correctly?]. >
The statement (you read it correctly) shows there was a vibrant difference of opinionabout what elements made for good music during the period.

< Still, what an amazing prodigy he (Telemann) was! >
Truly, when you consider Telemann's personal circumstances: absolutely no support from his family or friends who were doing everything they could to sabotage his efforts. It's definitely a "puyourself-up-by-the-bootstraps" story.

William Hoffman wrote (October 15, 2009):
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
< Still, what an amazing prodigy he (Telemann) was! >
William Hoffman replies: The Telemann autobiography not only shows parallels with Bach but also demonstrates, I think,but also the amazing opportunities that befell composers with talent in Germany. Fortunately, no great pecking order or rigorous apprenticeship existed as in the music heartland of Italy. Maybe that's a major reason the center of musical creativity was moving north again, this time to Vienna, where it would flourish for a century and a half.

Meanwhile, this serendipity in German-speaking lands enabled local composers to develop a new, distinct, vibrant, creative school of music in their enlightened and pluralistic culture.

Telemann's Doubling of Bass Parts

Aryeh Oron wrote (February 24, 2010):
Thomas Braatz contributed a short article which is in response to a question that has recently come up for discussion on the BCML.

Thomas Braatz wrote:
There are quite a few instances when Telemann scores his vocal parts SATBB leading an observer to wonder why Telemann did this. Jürgen Neubacher as investigated this matter and has come up with the following explanation: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/DoppelterBass.pdf

Douglas Cowling wrote (February 24, 2010):
Thomas Braatz wrote:
< There are quite a few instances when Telemann scores his vocal parts SATBB leading an observer to wonder why Telemann did this. Jürgen Neubacher as investigated this matter and has come up with the following explanation: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/DoppelterBass.pdf >
The article mentions the size of pedal divisions in German churches. Yet I can't think of a single cantata performance in the last 20 years which has used a larger instrument than a portative organ with 3 or 4 stops, and certainly no one doubles the continuo part with organ pedal.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (February 24, 2010):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< The article mentions the size of pedal divisions in German churches. Yet I can't think of a single cantata performance in the last 20 years which has used a larger instrument than a portative organ with 3 or 4 stops, and certainly no one doubles the continuo part with organ pedal. >
There is a suggestion that something in the design of the churches was requiring a doubling of bass voice parts and the sheer size of the bass pedal on their organs indicates something was unique to the design of the churches. I really didn't think the point was if the Hamburg churches used full organ with bass pedals during cantata performances.

I can tell you there was definitely a love affair going on with bass instruments. In the dozens upon dozens of scores and parts I've looked at from Darmstadt, Frankfurt, and Hamburg (Stölzel)-- there are several basso continuo parts. I wonder if the bass instruments were just not able to produce a lot of sound? When the Academy of Ancient Music recreated Handel's Water Music on a barge on the Thames, they did some sound tests to see how far away people would have been able to hear the instruments. They did tests using a violin, horn, and cello. The cello was the worst instrument. If you weren't within 10 feet of it, you could not have heard it, which means people along the shoreline were unlikely to have heard the strings.

Speaking of Hamburg churches:
I did try to find some interior photographs of the buildings but I didn't have much luck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hamburg-Michaeliskirche-Hafen.jpg
St. Michael's, where C.P.E. Bach and Mattheson are buried in the crypt.

Unfortunately, Telemann's remains had much worse luck :-(

George Bromley wrote (February 24, 2010):
[To Douglas Cowling] I wonder if it had anything to do with poor acoustics where the basses had to stand, I have sung in a Church in Johannesburg where the basses stood next to the organ blower outlet, in hot weather they could sound 1/2 a tone higher!

Douglas Cowling wrote (February 24, 2010):
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
< When the Academy of Ancient Music recreated Handel's Water Music on a barge on the Thames, they did some sound tests to see how far away people would have been able to hear the instruments. They did tests using a violin, horn, and cello. The cello was the worst instrument. If you weren't within 10 feet of it, you could not have heard it, which means people along the shoreline were unlikely to have heard the strings. >
I heard the same group do the Royal Fireworks Music with the original number of instruments. I still have nightmares remembering the sound of 14 period oboes tuning! The sound of 4 bassoons and contrabass on the continuo line was positively Wagnerian.

Modern performances of cantatas avoid a heavily weighted bass line and would never think of adding a 16 foot or (gasp) 32 foot pedal doubling. Yet there are cantatas where a big organ plenum would be effective: e.g "Wir Danken Dir", "Gott ist Mein König", "Sicut Locutus Est" (Magnificat), Kyrie II (Mass in B Minor). It certainly isn't because Bach was technically unable to play the lines: his pedalwork is virtuosic.

This will cause a flame-war, but most cantatas are now recorded as chamber works with no regard to their original acoustic setting. There is little experimentation with large, kaleidoscopically-coloured organs and certainly not with expansive acoustics.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (February 24, 2010):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< Modern performances of cantatas avoid a heavily weighted bass line and would never think of adding a 16 foot or (gasp) 32 foot pedal doubling. Yet there are cantatas where a big organ plenum would be effective: e.g "Wir Danken Dir", "Gott ist Mein König", "Sicut Locutus Est" (Magnificat), Kyrie II (Mass in B Minor). It certainly isn't because Bach was technically unable to play the lines: his pedalwork is virtuosic. >
Of course, it varied by area and period, but I often wondered if the reason why Mozart's Salzburg masses didn't use violas was simply because they would not have been heard in such a huge acoustic area.

Here's an interior shot: http://physics.ucsc.edu/~drip/austria/images/dom.JPG

Ed Myskowski wrote (February 24, 2010):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< I can't think of a single cantata performance in the last 20 years which has used a larger instrument than a portative organ with 3 or 4 stops >
The series of recordings by Christophe Coin sneak into the 20 year window. Although the cantatas were selected to accurately represent Bachs writing for violincello piccolo, the recordings also feature church organ. From booklet notes by Coin:

<The choice, for the recordings, of a charming little church on the borders of Saxony and Thuringia was justified chiefly by the presence of an organ by Silbermann. [...]

While the organ parts in almost all the engravings of the cantatas are played on a small instrument (chest organ), we thought it would be interesting to use the great organ even for the continuo. It thus becomes the main axis around which instrumentalists and singers then gather.> (end quote)

I pass this along without comment, especially re the accuracy of the comment re engravings.

Douglas Cowling wrote (February 24, 2010):
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
< I often wondered if the reason why Mozart's Salzburmasses didn't use violas was simply because they would not have been heard in such a huge acoustic area.
Here's an interior shot: http://physics.ucsc.edu/~drip/austria/images/dom.JPG >
Austrian church music was notoriously conservative and retained the format of paired instruments which Monteverdi pioneered at the beginning of the 17th century.

That photo of Salzburg Cathedral is actually deceptive. If you look closely, you will see four choir galleries, each with a permanent organ, on the four piers of the the dome. These galleries face each other and in fact create quite a contained performance space. I was keen to test the space in which the famous 60-part "Missa Salisburiensis" by Biber was performed. My wife and I and our two sons each stood under one of the galleries and we could easily hear each other speaking normally.

Music performed from these galleries would have sounded above the heads of the listeners and amplified by the dome as it was carried down into the nave. The same acoustical trick can be experienced in the "Whispering Gallery" at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Biber's mass was originally performed by eight "choirs": four in the galleries, and four on raised platforms under the galleries. The music is filled with paired solo voices and solo instruments which would have had no problem projecting in the acoustic. At the same time, the tuttis would have been enhanced by the dome's reverberance.

Much fun can be had playing with this panoramic view of the Dom's interior: http://austria-360.at/salzburg/page-dom.html

Modern audiences take dry concert halls as the norm and assume that reverberent acoustics are a liability. They are when music is performed where it was never intended, on the altar stairs, and always a revelation when the music returns to its historic positions in elevated galleries and enclosed choirs.

Ed Myskowski wrote (February 24, 2010):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< Music performed from these galleries would have sounded above the heads of the listeners and amplified by the dome as it was carried down into the nave. The same acoustical trick can be experienced in the "Whispering Gallery" at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. >
Visitors to (or residents of) Boston MA, USA, can experience a neat demonstration of the trick at the Mapparium, a three-story globe at the Christian Science (oxymoron?) Mother Church. A pedestrian bridge passes through on a diameter of a stained glass globe, back-illuminated. Folks can stand at either end of the bridge and whisper to each other, the sound transmitted not across the bridge, but via the spherical acoustic.

The Mapparium was constructed in the pre-WW2 era when Brittania ruled the waves, and as Randy Newman so aptly puts it, the great nations of Europe were (still!) coming through. It is preserved as an historic artifact, no longer (or never?) politically correct. It is oft stated that it is no longer geographically accurate, but that statement incorrectly conflates geography and politics, a human failing even older than the fight about when to celebrate Easter.

Parenthesis (I have an idea): Good Friday can be the first Friday after Seder, followed by Easter Sunday. Does everyone agree when to celebrate Passover? If not, we can work that out at the same time. Probably too late to fix it up for 2010, but after 17 centuries of dispute, another lost year here or there should hardly matter. I am starting on my corrected 2010 calendar, and suggested 2011 calendar ASAP. Just in time to avert the potentially apocalyptic expiration of the Mayan calendar in 2012 (12/12/12?).

If I understand correctly, the original justification for separating Easter from Passover was to enable correlation with the days of the week, i.e., Crucifixion always on a Friday (hence the Good) and Easter always on a Sunday. More or less analogous to the way Americans now celebrate Abraham Lincolns and George Washingtons birthdays on the intervening Monday, sacrificing two random holidays for one three-day weekend. You can fool some of the people all of the time? (end parenthesis)

Back to the globe: politically correct or not, it is quite impressive to experience planet Earth (the Home Planet!) as a sphere: Two things in particular stand out for me
(1) The scope of the Oceanic (Pacific) cultures, nearly half the planet. How the Great Nations of Oceania (pre Brittania) managed the settlement and acculturation of that expanse remains a mystery, and tribute to the human spirit. Mahalo, Pele.
(2) The relative amount of territory Belgium managed to snag with the Congo, which straddles the equator, and is often diminished in visual impact by the traditional Mercator projection. For that matter, the scope of the whole continent of Africa (the Home Continent, for those of us who identify as homo sapiens!) is better grasped globally, or at least with non-Mercator two dimensional projections.

I wonder if Bach had access to a globe? Luther?

OT: Telemann's Leipzig probe?

William Hoffman wrote (July 14, 2010):
Anyone with access to Telemann's Autobiography, can you tell us if he presented a probe piece in Leipzig, July-September 1722?

Brockes Passion

David Glenn Levut Jr. wrote (August 8, 2010):
Aryeh Oron wrote:
<< Telemann's version of Brockes-Passion was probably performed by J.S. Bach.
See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Telemann-Brockes-Passion.htm >>
>
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< This page provides links to a very interesting WIKI page on the Telemann Passions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Philipp_Telemann%27s_Passions
Telemann's plan for his Passions was extraordinarily consistent. Although there are quite a few missing setting, he systematically composed settings of the Passions in the canonical order of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from 1722 - 67. Now that's a well-regulated church music!
Did Leipzig have this same prescribed four-year sequence or was Bach free to choose the Gospel? (the latter seems unlikely to me). Does anyone have Stiller to hand to check? >
Douglas Cowling wrote:
"Did Leipzig have this same prescribed four-year sequence or was Bach free to choose the Gospel?"
I answer thusly:

First, my apologies for being so late with this. So much has happened in the last couple years.

It is interesting that you bring up Hamburg traditions and ask if Leipzig had similar traditions.

As far as I know, there are two different and diametrically opposite principles operating here. Here is a brief synopsis of both:

Principle 1 (which we shall call the "Hamburg principle"): The Passion (or Passion Oratorio, depending on the case) was actually NOT performed on Good Friday in the main churches (the ones that Telemann had responsibility for the music), but rather throughout the Lenten season (from Thursday after Judica Sunday through Good Friday, the secondary churches would perform Passion music almost daily) in the following order:

1.) Invocavit Sunday (Petriskirche)

2.) Reminiscere Sunday (Nikolaikirche)

3.) Oculi Sunday (none performed--this day was traditionally reserved for installation music [Juraten-Einfuehrungsmusik] at the Michaeliskirche)

4.) Laetere Sunday (Katherinenkirche)

5.) Judica Sunday (Jakobiskirche)

6.) Palmarum (Palm Sunday) (Michaeliskirche)

This info I got from the Preface: Passions from my copy of the CPE Bach ComWorks edition of his Matthaeus-Passion H. 782 (1769).

Passions were traditionally in Canonical order (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)--there is still some debate as to why Emanuel Bach chose to write his first Hamburg Passion according to St. Matthew, thus making it out of sync with the state of affairs in Hamburg at the time (he should have composed a setting of the St. John Passion instead, as the last one performed before he came to Hamburg was a repeat performance of the last St. Luke Passion of Telemann.).

Principle 2 (which we shall call the "Leipzig principle"): The text of the Passion would have been selected by Bach after he ascertained from the Sexton and the preacher (Pfarrherr) of whichever church (the Thomaskirche or the Nikolaikirche) would hold the Good Friday Vespers service (during which the Passion setting for the year would be performed) what Passion Gospel would be presented that year. Unlike Hamburg (which did not hold a Good Friday Vespers service per se), Leipzig had a period during which no music outside of simple chorales would be sung (a Tempus clausum period) which extended throughout Lent (from Invocavit Sunday through Judica Sunday), with the exception of the times when the Marian feast of the Annunciation (25 March) fell in Lent. This is (I think) one of the reasons why the Johannes-Passion BWV 245 was presented in two consecutive years (1724 and 1725), albeit in different formats.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (August 8, 2010):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< This page provides links to a very interesting WIKI page on the Telemann Passions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Philipp_Telemann%27s_Passions
Telemann's plan for his Passions was extraordinarily consistent. Although there are quite a few missing setting, he systematically composed settings of the Passions in the canonical order of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from 1722 - 67. Now that's a well-regulated church music! >
Just wanted to interject that Telemann's grandson Georg Michael Telemann may had a role in so many of the early passion settings missing. Jurgen Neubacher's research indicates G.M. Telemann was responsible for the destruction of entire cantata cycles prior to 1740, because they were too old fashioned for GMT to use in his capacity as music director of the Riga cathedral. What music GMT didn't throw out, some pieces were literally sliced up and cut and pasted into hodge podge pieces, including some Passion settings. I would assume this happened with the passion settings as well. Iroinically, Benda was saving Stoelzel's settings of the passions and large collections of his cantatas precisely because of the quality of the "old style" (i.e. fugal/contrapunctal). It's really odd how much what was considered worthless and old fashioned could vary from place to place and by music director.

OT: Major Telemann musical discovery

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (September 3, 2012):
With Aryeh's kind permission, I thought I would pass this along to the groups: a major Telemann find: a previously unknown wedding serenata has been recovered in Hamburg, Germany. Composed for the marriage of Alexander Richter and maid Rosina Brigitta Guden on December 4, 1754. The cantata text book which was printed (at significant cost) was known, but the music had been unidentified because of a late 18^th century copy that was made by either a student of Telemann (likely Johann Christoph Schmügel (1726-1798), or one of his copyists (Otto Ernst Schieferlein Gregory (1704-1787), who either had access to Telemann's music library, or purchased it from Telemann's estate. It's a major find because of twenty pieces that Telemann composed for Hamburg weddings, this is only the second piece that the music
has survived.

Source (in German). Bibliothekssystem Universität Hamburg: Telemannsche Hochzeitskantate von 1754

Douglas Cowling wrote (September 3, 2012):
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
< Composed for the marriage of Alexander Richter and maid Rosina Brigitta Guden on December 4, 1754. >
Amazing discovery of a substantial work. Thanks for the link.

Tiny question ... Isn't "Jungfer" the equivalent of the legal English "spinster," an unmarried woman, to distinguish a class difference with a servant "maid" in German? The servant who accuses Peter in the St. John Passion is a maid = "Magd"

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (September 3, 2012):
[To Douglas Cowling] Yeah, bad translation. Jungfer can have a dual meaning, virgin and spinster.

Douglas Cowling wrote (September 4, 2012):
Spinsters, Maids and Virgins

[To Kim Patrick Clow] I'm sure I'm wrong about the class thing. Wotan calls his virgin goddess daughter, Brünnhilde, a "Magd".

I really should get back to work ...

Evan Cortens wrote (September 4, 2012):
Douglas Cowling & Kim Patrick Clow] I think in this case "Jungfer" just means unmarried woman, regardless of class. "Spinster" used to have the same meaning in English decades ago. For example, in the marriage records from late nineteenth-century Ontario, the man is either a bachelor or a widower and the woman is either a spinster or a widow. Of course, this word has since taken on an additional pejorative dimension. Thus, I'd probably translate the title from the libretto simply as "Marriage cantata for the Hamburg merchant Alexander Richter and Rosina Brigitta Guden".

An amazing find--thanks for posting, Kim!

Telemann - Trauer-Music eines kunsterfahrenen Canarienvogels (TVWV 20:37)

Charles Francis wrote (September 30, 2012):
There are various links between Bach and Telemann that might motivate this post and although I generally don't rate such "modern" composers, this is definitely worth a listen.

Background info (German): http://www.klassik-heute.de/kh/3cds/20100305_19616.shtml

Performance extract by Dorothee Mields, Bach Concentus, Ewald Demeyere: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXwd5Vg5L8Q

Complete performance by Fischer-Dieskau (transcription?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDU3D4dCG2I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWyUxts6vn8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGIK1_q6CKc

Telemann's Helden Music

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (December 22, 2012):
Georg Philipp Telemann had the uncanny knack of capturing any abstract term or "thing" in music. Of course, opera and cantata texts were the ultimate source of his inspiration, but just give him the twelve virtues, and he would write an entire piece of music out of it. In 1728, he published (and engraved them himself in copper-plate) a set of pieces called Heroic Music (or 12 marches) for harpsichord 2 oboes, and horns or trumpets. In the 1960s, organist E. Power Biggs and the New England Brass teamed up for a recording on Columbia Records, and I finally got around to making it available online (there isn't a single copy of thversion on Youtube). Enjoy! You can click on the sprocket icon to get the best HD by clicking on it after the video starts).

Unfortunately there was only one single print of Telemann's 1728 edition that survived up until WW2 (it was in the Königsberg university library, which was heavily destroyed by Soviet forces in 1944. An edition was apparently prepared from that source, but as an arranged for keyboard, and a single treble instrument (violin, oboe, trumpet), and was finally published in the early 1950s in Berlin. This recording uses as its basis that 1950s version, but composer Daniel Pinkham tastefully added some percussion and some call / responses to the two trumpet players that no doubt were in the original edition. Baroque trumpets could not play the oboe lines however, to be clear. But the music is glorious!

The video is available at YouTube. http://youtu.be/dcpcEXv9zRQ

OT: Bach's peers / G. Ph. Telemann's "Musique hיroןque ou XII Marches"

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (December 22, 2012):
Georg Philipp Telemann had the uncanny knack of capturing any abstract term or "thing" in music. Of course, opera and cantata texts were the ultimate source of his inspiration, but just give him the twelve virtues, and he would write an entire piece of music out of it. In 1728, he published (and engraved them himself in copper-plate) a set of pieces called Heroic Music (or 12 marches) for harpsichord 2 oboes, and horns or trumpets. In the 1960s, organist E. Power Biggs and the New England Brass Ensemble teamed up for a recording on Columbia Records, and I finally got around to making it available online (there isn't a single copy of this version on Youtube). Enjoy! You can click on the sprocket icon to get the best HD by clicking on it after the video starts).

Unfortunately there was only one known single print of Telemann's 1728 edition that survived up until WW2 (it was in the Königsberg university library, which was heavily destroyed by Soviet forces in 1944. An edition was apparently prepared from that source, but as an arranged for keyboard, and a single treble instrument (violin, oboe, trumpet), and was finally published in the early 1950s in Berlin when paper became available for commercial publishing. This recording uses as its basis that 1950s edition, but for the Columbia Records album, composer Daniel Pinkham tastefully added some percussion and some call / responses to the two trumpet players that no doubt were in the original edition. A cautionary note: Baroque trumpets could not play the oboe lines that you hear in this recording (and purists will fuss no doubt), but the music is glorious!

Even though the music has no obvious connection to Christmas, my local classical radio station in Norfolk Virginia (WGH-FM then became public radio WHRO/WHRV) would typically play this recording during the Yuletide season.

The video is available at YouTube. http://youtu.be/dcpcEXv9zRQ

Happy Holidays and to your loved ones

Telemann Conference at Temple University (October 2017)

William Hoffman wrote (January 12, 2017):
From: The American Bach Society
Sent: Jan 11, 2017 6:33 PM
Subject: Telemann Conference at Temple University (October 2017)

Georg Philipp Telemann: Enlightenment and Postmodern Perspectives
11-14 October 2017
Temple University, Philadelphia
CFP deadline: 1 March 2017, proposals to telemann -at- temple.edu
Languages: English and German

Confirmed guest speakers:
Nina Eichholz (Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden)
Wolfgang Hirschmann (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Carsten Lange (Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und –Forschung, Magdeburg)
Brit Reipsch (Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und –Forschung, Magdeburg)
Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch (Zentrum für Telemann-Pflege und –Forschung, Magdeburg)
Kota Sato (Tokyo)
Jeanne Swack (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Bettina Varwig (King’s College London)
Steven Zohn (Temple University)

This conference, the first devoted to Telemann outside of Germany, commemorates the 250th anniversary of his death in 1767. Recent decades have seen a dramatic growth in scholarship on the composer, with his vocal music attracting particular attention. The result has been an increasingly nuanced picture of one of the eighteenth century’s most significant musical figures. The conference will be at the center of a week-long festival of Telemann’s music, in partnership with Tempesta di Mare (tempestadimare.org). Festival events will include a live interdisciplinary talk show and concerts featuring recently discovered and infrequently heard works.

We welcome proposals for 30-minute papers on a broad range of topics related to Telemann’s life and music, as well as to the cultural, social, and religious environments in which he worked. Please send abstracts of up to 300 words as a Word document [last name_first name.docx] to telemann -at- temple.edu by 1 March 2017. Along with your name, institutional affiliation or city of residence, and email address, indicate any audio, visual, or other needs for the presentation. Applicants will be notified of the program committee’s decision by early April 2017.

Organizing/Program Committee: Steven Zohn, Wolfgang Hirschmann, Jeanne Swack

Copyright © 2017 The American Bach Society, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this because you are, or have previously been, a member of the American Bach Society.

Our mailing address is:
The American Bach Society
PO Box 7155
Grand Rapids, MI 49510

Musica Dei donum (1 April 2019)

Johan van Veen wrote (April 1, 2019):
CD releases: April 2019

CD reviews:

[Music for Passiontide]
Telemann: Seliges Erwägen des bittern Leydens und Sterbens Jesu Christi (TWV 5,2)

Soloists, Freiburger Barockorchester/Gottfried von der Goltz
Victoria: "Tenebrae Responsories"
stile antico
Wolf: Jesu, deine Passion will ich jetzt bedenken
Soloists, Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens

---

Kirkman: "Lessons and Sonatas"
Medea Bindewald, Nicolette Moonen

"L'orgue des jardiniers"
Jérôme Mondésert, organ

see: http://www.musica-dei-donum.org

William Hoffman wrote (April 3, 2019):
[To Johan Van Veen] Thank you for a fine review of the Telemann Passion. Two dates Andreas Glöckner furnished for Bach in Leipzig were tentative and still not accepted: Telemann Seliges Erwägen, c. 1734 and Telemann Brockes Passion 1739, which could have replaced the banned St. John Passion. No copy of the former is extant although one may have existed in the Thomas School. Copies of the latter were found at one time in the Thomas School (C-86, ?Bds. Mus. 21711) and in the 1790 estate of Emmanuel (p. 87, score and parts) — both versions now lost.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (April 4, 2019):
Johan van Veen wrote (April 1, 2019):
< CD reviews:
[Music for Passiontide]
Telemann: Seliges Erwägen des bittern Leydens und Sterbens Jesu Christi (TWV 5,2)
Soloists, Freiburger Barockorchester/Gottfried von der Goltz ...." >
Yes, I agree with the excellent review and many thanks for bringing this fine performance of the Telemann passion to my attention. It is a wonderful recording and I share your hope "This work is well worth being regularly performed, as an alternative to the various settings of the Brockes-Passion, including Telemann's own. It is to be hoped that this new recording will raise the interest in this fine oratorio.

William Hoffman wrote (April 4, 2019):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] Kim: Can you tell me if Telemann composed any sacred oratorios? I know he did several secular works (serenades). Also, did Neumeister do any sacred oratorio librettos?
Thanks,

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (April 5, 2019):
[To William Hoffman] Yes, Telemann wrote several sacred oratorios:

Der Tag des Gerichts ("The Day of Judgement") (1761–62)
Der Tod Jesu ("The Death of Jesus") TWV 5:6 (1755)
Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu" ("The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus") TWV 6:6, (1760)
Trauermusik for Emperor Karl VII (1745) Ich hoffete aufs Licht, TWV 4:13
Reformations-Oratorium 1755 Holder Friede, Heilger Glaube TW13:18
Der Messias (1759)
Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient music performed Telemann's Der Messias, but it was never released either on vinyl record or CD, but a producer at Decca (Pete Wadland) sent me a cassette of it.

from the Telemann catalog of works (some of these were mentioned above)
06: 1 Davidische Gesange [missing/lost]
06: 2 Wahrer Freundschaft seltne Triebe [missing/lost]
06: 3a Donnerode I SATB avec 3 clairons, cor, basson, timbales, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et continuo
06: 3b Sonnerode II SATB avec 2 flûtes traversières, 2 clairons, cor, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et violoncelle concertant
06: 4 Der Messias SAT avec 2 flûtes traversières, 2 hautbois, hautbois basse, 2 bassons, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et violoncelle concertant
06: 5 Das befreite Israel SATB avec flûte traversière, 2 hautbois, 2 bassons, 3 clairons, 2 cors, timbales, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et continuo
06: 6 Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu SATB avec 2 flûtes traversières, 2 hautbois, 3 trompettes, 2 cors, timbales, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et continuo
06: 7 Die Auferstehung SATB avec 2 flûtes traversières, 2 hautbois, hautbois basse, 3 trompettes, 2 cors, timbales, 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et continuo
06: 8 Der Tag des Gerichts SATB avec 2 hautbois, 2 cors, timbales, 2 violons, alto, viole de gambe, violoncelle et continuo.

In addition, there were oratorios composed in conjunction with the Hamburg Kaptainsmusic... "Of the 36 Kapitänsmusiken that Telemann wrote, only 10 oratorios (with nine complete oratorio–serenade pairs) plus a few separate pieces are extant today."

As for the question: did Neumeister write an oratorio libretto, I asked a friend of mine who is a German musicologist and a Telemann specialist (Johannes Pausch) and he told me that to his knowledge Neumeister did not write a text for an oratorio. Johannes has edited a musical edition of this Telemann oratorio ("Seliges Erwägen des bittern Leydens und Sterbens Jesu Christi" (TWV 5,2) and it has been performed at least twice. Johannes mentioned to me as well "the libretto of that was written by Telemann. When he came to Hamburg he thought he must have something else than the huge Brockes Passion. Rightfully so, because it became one of his biggest successes. Yes, it's really great music! The last aria 'Jesus spannt die Gnadenflügel' for me is one of the culmination points of Telemannic aria composition."

I discovered while researching one of your questions that Telemann composed an piece celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neumeister's ordination (TWV 3:52), but the music and text are lost.

I hope this helps

William Hoffman wrote (April 20, 2019):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] I just found out that the Telemann 1730-31 oratorio annual cycle has been found and a new CPO recording covers three Christmas Oratorios, https://naxosdirect.com/items/telemann-christmas-oratorios-479005

I just ordered it.

William Hoffman wrote (April 20, 2019):
There are five oratorios extant and published: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/230210203?q&versionId=253468035

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (April 21, 2019):
[To William Hoffman] That CPO recording of the Christmas pieces from the Oratorischer Jahrgang is really great.
There are more cantatas from that cycle that are published by Barenreiter in their ongoing Telemann edition.

Audio samples of that CD can be heard at: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/georg-philipp-telemann-weihnachtsoratorien/hnum/8750407

The cantatas were edited by Ute Poetzsch and Steffen Voss: https://www.baerenreiter.com/shop/produkt/details/BA7809_01/

William Hoffman wrote (April 22, 2019):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] Thank you. The succeeding Jahrgang, 1731-32, also is labeled “oratorios,” libretto by Tobias Heinrich Schubart; Baerenreiter has 12 Trinity Time works (8 to 19 Sunday), BA 7804-01, all TVWV 1 classified as cantatas (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA7804_01/). This cycle may include a Reformation oratorio but without gospel quotations. I have ordered the Christmas Oratorios recording from HBDirect.

Could you possibly explore the Zell cycle from TVWV and find me the works for Pentecost 1-3? There also in this cycle is a Michaelmas oratorio, TVWV deest http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=226959.

Peter Smaill has directed me to Telemann and the Gotha Court as part of my research into a possibly lost Bach Pentecost oratorio. I am also, pursuing "Actus pentecostalis" of Philipp Heinrich Erlebach at Rudolstadt and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow at Halle, c.1690-1702. There also is a Kuhnau St. Stephens oratorio from the same time (Howard Smither, History of the Oratorio: Vol. 2: 29).

Gratefully,

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (April 24, 2019):
[To William Hoffman] I asked a friend about your question about the Zell Telemann cantata cycle: "So this is what I have learned: The cycle is extant from 1st advent to ascension / S. John's day (June 21) and some additional (like Michaelmas). So Pentecost1-3 is extant. Now comes a big but: They are still not online, much less to be found on RISM yet. I will try to find out which cantatas are extant (Name and TVWV-#) and I will tell you. I couldn't even find a complete list! The TVWV listing is not reliable. I believe [Werner] Menke [the editor for the Telemann vocal works index] didn't even see the sources, other than telling us they have a bombastic text; he doesn't say anything about that cycle."

As to Gotha, and the possibility of a lost Bach Pentecost oratorio? Sadly, there is very little music left, at least as far as I can tell from my editing Stölzel cantatas. Currently in Gotha, there are just 11 manuscripts left out of what was a body of music that had to have numbered easily 2000 pieces, that was ransacked by

Stölzel's successor Georg Benda, who had to provide a disposition to the court to explain his actions regarding the manuscripts disappearance. But I was able to order reproductions of text books to Stölzel's music that hasn't survived (e.g.Stölzel composed a Christmas oratorio during his first year in Gotha).

I hope this helps!

William Hoffman wrote (April 22, 2019):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] Thank you. It is only a partial Zell cycle so that Pentecost 1 and 2 are Schubart cantata texts, catalogued as TVWV 1:904 and 1:168 with brass instruments, part of an “oratorio" cycle extending through 1732; Pentecost source, Telemann festive works with brass WorldCat Libraries. Could you send me the English Preface to the Baerenreiter BA 7809, 5 Zell oratorios? I can scan the Cron-Smithers source (above) at the UNM library and send it to you if you need it.

As for Gotha, the source texts books may reveal special music for the high festivals. Peter Smaill says the Halle library survived and Friedemann found much music in 1746 but none of his father’s so he had to borrow from Dad. I also will explore the Rudolstadt sources where Johann Ludwig Bach was active.

Thankfully,

Bach- Jauchzet dem Herrn Anh160

SJT Doughty wrote (April 21, 2019):
Hello. I've been directed to this amazing site. I'm very interested in the above motet, which seems to be an amalgamation of Bach and Telemann. However I'm having great trouble sourcing a score. Does anyone have access or can direct me to a pdf?
Thank you

Aryeh Oron wrote (April 21, 2019):
[To SJT Doughty] Thanksfor your message.
I suggest to take a look at Bach Digital: Bach Digital

William Hoffman wrote (April 22, 2019):
For sheet music, see Presto Music

New Telemann book by Steven [BML] Telemann 1714/15 cantata cycle complete recording project is underway Zohn

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (February 20, 2020):
Telemann and Bach's life often intersected (e.g. Bach's second surviving son was named after Telemann, who also served as the boy's god father at his baptism). American musicologist and Telemann scholar Steven Zohn has just published a new book on Telemann entitled "The Telemann Compendium."

About the book, " This book is the first guide to research on the composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) in any language. Although the scholarly 'Telemann Renaissance' is now a half-century old, there has never been a book intended to serve as a gateway for further study. Apart from a handful of biographies, dictionary entries, and annotated bibliographies (many of which are now severely out of date), students of Telemann's life and music have been left to dive into the secondary literature in order to get their bearings. Considering that this now burgeoning literature has mainly taken the form of German dissertations and conference proceedings, it is small wonder that the field of Telemann studies has been relatively slow to develop in the English-speaking world. And yet the veritable explosion of performances, both live and recorded, of the composer's music in recent decades has won him an ever-increasing following among musicians and concert-goers worldwide. As with other books in the Composer Compendia series, the book includes a brief biography, dictionary, works-list, and selective bibliography.

STEVEN ZOHN is Laura Carnell Professor of Music History at Temple University. Dr. Zohn is the Laura H. Carnell Professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. " Zohn’s research interests focus on the music of Telemann and the Bach family, intersections of style and genre, print culture, music as intellectual property, reception history, source studies, and historical performance practices. His research on these topics has been published widely in journals, essay collections, and reference works, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, Eighteenth-Century Music, Bach Perspectives, the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Early Music, and The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Music. He has also edited volumes for the C.P.E. Bach and Telemann critical editions, and for the series Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era. His book Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works (Oxford University Press, 2008) is the first major published study of the composer in English since the 1970s, and received the American Bach Society’s William H. Scheide Prize. "

The book is available via Amazon and also from the publisher Boydell Press.

Aryeh Oron wrote (February 21, 2020):
In case you are not yet aware, Filip Adam Zieliński with help of the musicologist Marc-Roderich Pfau, has begun to contribute to the BCW the original German texts of Telemann' vocal works. See:
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Telemann-Ger5-Number.htm
AFAIK, these texts are not presented anywhere else on the web.

Telemann 1714/15 cantata cycle complete recording project is underway

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (January 15, 2021):
Happy New Year:

A friend told me that a complete recording of Telemann's "French" cantata cycle (Frankfurt 1714/15, text by Neumeister) is currently underway. This recording project will be released on the CPO label in Germany. The Neumeyer consort will be performing. This is the first large scale recording of any Telemann large cantata cycle to my knowledge,other than the chamber cantatas that Telemann self-published. As the person stated in his email "It is about time a complete recording of a larger scale cantata cycle [by Telemann] was started."

A video highlighting the series is on Youtube @ https://youtu.be/pk4COZYNvrc
The project has its own website @ https://www.telemann-project.de
And information is also at the Neumeyconsort website https://www.neumeyerconsort.de/

New CD release :Telemann - Cantatas for the Hanoverian Kings of England

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (May 27, 2021):
There is a great new CD release on the CPO label of some fantastic but largely unknown music by Georg Philip Telemann. CPO is also participating in the first recording of a cantata cycle by Telemann (the "French" cycle from 1715) from a new urtext edition that is being prepared by Peter Young of Canberra Baroque.

"Cantatas for the Hanoverian Kings of England

This CD features three dazzling but previously only little-known compositions for royals from Telemann’s immense trove of vocal music. The selections have been chosen from the field of commissioned and occasional compositions written for special occasions such as acts of homage, funerary ceremonies, weddings, birthdays, and inaugurations. Two works from Telemann’s primary creative field, that of church music, round off the program. The three works featured on this recording have in common points of reference to the particular English kings during whose reigns they were written; these monarchs were also in personal union the Prince Electors of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (for short: »Electors of Hanover«). All three works are distinguished by scoring for an ensemble with trumpets as »royal instruments« – sometimes in a majestic function, sometimes in a tonally subdued, mournful function – and with a bass singer as the vocal representative of the monarch. These works brimming with ideas and designed with virtuosity and color are from the master’s late compositional period and, depending on the particular occasion, express gratitude, appreciation, or grief vis-à-vis the British-Hanoverian rulers. Although these feelings certainly first and foremost reflect the stance of those who commissioned them, Telemann’s musical settings lend them universal appeal."

Audio sample are available online @ JPC Store

New Release: Telemann: Oratorium zum Johannis-Fest "Gelobet sei der Herr" TVWV1:602/1216

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (April 26, 2022):
CPO has a new release this month of G. Ph. Telemann's Oratorium zum Johannis-Fest "Gelobet sei der Herr" TVWV1:602/1216. From the CPO webpage:

Opulent and imaginative Telemann oratorios
In the church year 1730 / 31, Telemann performed a volume of special conception: Regular oratorios were to be heard in the church service. And so the focus of our latest Telemann CD is his magnificent oratorio for the feast of St. John, Gelobet sei der Herr, with expressive texts by the poet and musician Albrecht Jacob Zell. Zell succeeds in imagining dramatic, almost theatrical scenes, thus providing Telemann with models for tone-painting. Not only is the vocal cast extremely lush, including three basses, but the instrumentation is also very rich, including the use of four horns and three transverse flutes. Once again, Telemann unfolds a wide range of expressions. The lament of the Egyptians over the slain children, in F minor and chromatic turns, is moving; the depiction of the fleeing people and their pursuers, who cannot reach them, is full of external movement and tension, with chains of sixteenth notes on the one hand and syllabic declamation on the other.

Samle audio tracks from the release are available online @ JPC

Enjoy!

Complete recording of the Teleman French cantata cycle. Vol 2 concert online

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (May 20, 2022):
The second volume of the complete recording on CPO of the Telemann French cantata cycle (1714/15) will be released soon on the CPO label. There is a promotional video with the conductor Felix Koch along with some of the participating soloists (Gutenberg Soloists, Neumeyer Consort). They will perform from a new urtext edition specifically prepared for this project by Peter Young of Canberra baroque; with a lot of these cantatas are world premiere recordings. The promotional video is available at YouTube; they will also be broadcasting a concert via Youtube for three cantatas from this cycle as well.

That video link will be @ YouTube

The cantatas that will be included on the 2 CD set will include:
Christ ist erstanden TVWV 1:136 for Easter Day
22-24 after Trinity:
Wir liegen großer Gott vor dir 1668
Wertes Zion sei getrost 1606
Ich weiß dass mein Erlöser lebt 874, 876 (2 settings)
Michaelisfest:Ich bin getrost in meinem Leben 821
6-10 after Trinity:
Zorn und Wüten sind ein Greuel 1734
Wer Jesum kennt 1588
Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort 451
Machet euch Freunde 1076
Nimm von uns Herr 1159

Dr. Steven Zohn: published Telemann studies book

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (July 31, 2022):
Today on Facebook Steve Zohn posted this about a new book co-edited with Wolfgang Hirschmann.

“Very pleased to announce the publication of the first collection of essays on Telemann in English, co-edited by yours truly. This project dates back to 2015, when I began organizing the 2017 conference (affectionately known as "Teledelphia") from which most of the essays derive. I am most grateful to all the authors for their hard work and valuable insights, to my co-editor Wolfgang Hirschmann, and to the folks at Cambridge University Press.

You may now be able to access the book electronically at an academic library near you; print copies should be available shortly in Europe, and this fall in the USA. The link below allows you to see the table of contents and samples.
Telemann Studies (Cambridge University Press)

Screenshot of the table of contents in the attached photos.

Georg Philipp Telemann: Short Biography | G.P. Telemann - Use of Chorale Melodies in his works | G.P. Telemann - His Autobiography (Hamburg, 1740)
Discussions: Georg Philipp Telemann & Bach: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Works: Cantata BWV 141 | Cantata BWV 160 | Cantata BWV 218 | Cantata BWV 219 | Passions-Pasticcio BWV 1088 | Motet Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt, BWV Anh 160 | Cantata Hier ist mein Herz, geliebter Jesu, TWV 1:795 | Cantata Ich freue mich im Herren, TWV 1:826 | Cantata Machet die Tore weit (I), TWV 1:074 | Cantata Der Herr ist König, TWV 8:6 | Brockes Passion, TWV 5:1 | Passions-Oratorium Seliges Erwägen, TWV 5:2
Original German Texts of Telemann's Vocal Works: Sorted by TVWV Number | Sorted by Title | Sorted by Date | Sorted by Event | Music