MusiLLection

Telemann played a key role in shaping musical professionalism, encouraging public performance and cultivated listening. Telemann’s Double Concerto for Two Horns and Orchestra in E-flat Major belongs to the third production of his Musique de Table ( Tafelmusik , 1733), one of the most ambitious and representative publishing ventures of his career. Far from serving merely as refined background entertainment, this “Table Music” was intended for attentive listening among cultivated audiences—a context that explains the high degree of formal craftsmanship and structural variety found throughout the collection. The concerto’s instrumentation is particularly noteworthy. Telemann designates the two solo instruments as tromba selvatica , a term that has long intrigued musicological research. It most likely refers not to the modern trumpet, but to an early natural brass instrument akin to the horn, without valves and limited in chromatic flexibility. This ambiguity reflects the fluidity of in...

Portrait of Georg Philipp Telemann , one of the most influential and widely admired composers of the Baroque era. In his own lifetime, the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann enjoyed even greater popularity than his contemporary and fellow townsman Johann Sebastian Bach . A telling example of his stature is the fact that Telemann was first offered the prestigious post of Kantor at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig. Only his refusal—prompted by Hamburg’s efforts to retain him—ultimately led to Bach’s appointment to the position. Baroque music found in Telemann a composer of remarkable originality and freedom. Inspired, versatile, and exceptionally accomplished, he possessed an enviable ability to engage creatively with every musical genre of his time. Sacred and secular, instrumental and vocal music held no secrets for him. The works that have survived bear undeniable witness to this breadth, inspiring admiration both for their stylistic variety and their sheer abundance. Telem...

Georg Philipp Telemann  composed only one concerto for solo trumpet—a fact that may seem surprising, given the instrument’s great popularity during the Baroque period. The trumpet most commonly used in Telemann’s time was the high trumpet in D, prized for its brilliant and penetrating sound. Although he employed the trumpet in various orchestral contexts and even wrote a concerto for three trumpets, this work remains his sole concerto for a single trumpet soloist. The Trumpet Concerto in D major showcases both the ceremonial brilliance and the lyrical potential of the instrument, framed within a clear and balanced four-movement structure. Μovements : Ι. Adagio The concerto opens unusually without an orchestral introduction. The solo trumpet enters immediately, unfolding a long, flowing melody. Beneath it, the strings and harpsichord establish a steady, almost hymn-like rhythmic foundation, lending the movement a restrained and dignified character. ΙΙ. Allegro The second movement ...

A dynamic visual evocation of Don Quixote’s battle with the windmills, reflecting the humor and narrative energy of Telemann’s orchestral suite. Georg Philipp Telemann provoked strong reactions during his lifetime—particularly from conservative circles—by composing works that combined intellectual seriousness with wit and narrative imagination. Among these was his celebrated orchestral suite Don Quixote , a work that challenged the prevailing belief that a composer of sacred music should not engage in so-called “light” or descriptive instrumental genres. For Telemann’s more traditional contemporaries, such compositions were considered frivolous and incompatible with religious devotion. Telemann, however, saw no contradiction. His sacred works possess depth and gravity, while his secular instrumental music— Don Quixote included—communicates meaning with equal clarity, intelligence, and artistic conviction. Completed late in his life, the suite demonstrates that Telemann’s melodic in...