Georg Philipp Telemann (German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfiːlɪp ˈteːləman]; 24 March [O.S. 14 March] 1681 – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and musician who played many musical instruments. He was one of the most productive composers in history, based on the number of musical works that remain today. His contemporaries considered him one of the leading German composers of his time. He was often compared to Johann Sebastian Bach, who was his friend and named his son Carl Philipp Emanuel after Telemann, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally.

Telemann learned music mostly on his own, despite his family’s disapproval. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, he entered the University of Leipzig to study law but later chose to pursue a career in music. He held important roles in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before moving to Hamburg in 1721, where he became the musical director of the city’s five main churches. While his career was successful, his personal life faced challenges. His first wife died less than two years after their marriage, and his second wife had affairs and owed a large amount of money from gambling before leaving him.

As part of his job, Telemann composed a lot of music to help train organists. This included 48 chorale preludes and 20 small fugues (modal fugues) to accompany his harmonizations for 500 hymns. His music combined French, Italian, and German styles, and he was sometimes influenced by Polish folk music. He stayed up-to-date with new musical trends and helped connect late Baroque music with early Classical styles. The Telemann Museum in Hamburg honors his life and work.

Life

Telemann was born in Magdeburg, which was the capital of the Duchy of Magdeburg, a region within the Electorate of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire. His father, Heinrich, was a deacon at the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Magdeburg. Heinrich died when Telemann was four years old. At the age of 10, Telemann began his first music lessons with a local organist. He became very interested in music, especially in composing. Despite his mother and relatives disapproving of musical activities, Telemann secretly studied and composed music. By the age of 12, he had already written an opera.

In 1697, after attending school in Magdeburg and Zellerfeld, Telemann was sent to the well-known Gymnasium Andreanum in Hildesheim. There, his musical talents grew, and school leaders, including the rector, supported his development. Telemann became skilled at both composing and performing music. He taught himself to play the flute, oboe, violin, viola da gamba, recorder, double bass, and other instruments. In 1701, he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig University to study law. However, he eventually became a professional musician, composing music for the Nikolaikirche and the Thomaskirche. In 1702, he became the director of the municipal opera house, Opernhaus auf dem Brühl, and later the music director at the Neukirche. Telemann created many new musical works for Leipzig, including several operas, one of which was his first major opera, Germanicus. He had a disagreement with Johann Kuhnau, the cantor of the Thomaskirche. The disagreement worsened when Telemann began using students from Kuhnau’s school, the Thomasschule, for his projects.

In 1705, at the age of 24, Telemann left Leipzig after being invited to become Kapellmeister for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz in Sorau (now Żary, Poland). His time there was interrupted in early 1706 due to the fighting of the Great Northern War. After traveling briefly, he joined the service of Duke Johann Wilhelm in Eisenach, the city where Johann Sebastian Bach was born. The two men would later meet. In December 1708, Telemann became Konzertmeister, and in August 1709, he was appointed Secretary and Kapellmeister. During his time in Eisenach, Telemann composed a large amount of music, including at least four annual cycles of church cantatas, dozens of sonatas and concertos, and other works.

Marriage

In 1709, he married Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin, who was an assistant to the Countess of Promnitz and the daughter of musician Daniel Eberlin. Their daughter was born in January 1711. The mother passed away shortly after, which made Telemann very sad and upset.

After about a year, he looked for a new job and moved to Frankfurt on March 18, 1712, when he was 31 years old. He became the city music director and Kapellmeister at the Barfüßerkirche and St. Catherine's Church. In Frankfurt, he developed his own unique style of music. Like in Leipzig, he had a big influence on the city's music, creating music for two major churches, public events, and different groups of musicians. By 1720, he began using the da capo aria, a technique also used by composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti. Operas like Narciso, which was brought to Frankfurt in 1719 and written in the Italian style of music, influenced Telemann's work.

Telemann remained very productive and successful. He increased his income by working for employers in Eisenach as a Kapellmeister von Haus aus, meaning he sent new music regularly without living in Eisenach. His first published works appeared during the Frankfurt period. His output grew quickly, as he composed many overture-suites and chamber music, most of which were not widely recognized. These works included his 6 Sonatas for solo violin, known as the Frankfurt Sonatas, published in 1715. Later in the Frankfurt period, he created an innovative piece, his Viola Concerto in G major, which was twice as long as his violin concertos. He also composed his first major choral work, the Brockes Passion, in 1716.

Second Marriage

On August 28, 1714, three years after the death of his first wife, Telemann married Maria Catharina Textor, the daughter of a Frankfurt council clerk. The couple had nine children, which brought him happiness and inspired him to create many musical compositions.

In 1721, Telemann accepted a job in Hamburg as the school music director at the Johanneum Lateinschule and as the music leader for the five largest churches in the city. Soon after arriving, some church officials expressed concern that his non-religious music and activities were distracting for him and the people of Hamburg. The following year, when Johann Kuhnau died and the city of Leipzig sought a new music director for its churches, Telemann applied for the position. However, he turned it down after Hamburg officials offered him better pay. When another candidate, Christoph Graupner, also declined, the job went to Johann Sebastian Bach.

During this time, Telemann made a few short trips outside Germany. Later, in 1737, he traveled to Paris and stayed for eight months until 1738. There, he heard an opera called Castor et Pollux by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, which impressed him. After this experience, Telemann began using the French opera style in his own music. Before this, his work was mostly influenced by Italian and German styles. He remained in Hamburg for the rest of his life. One of his most important vocal works from this period was the St Luke Passion, written in 1728, which shows his fully developed musical style.

His early years in Hamburg were difficult due to problems in his marriage. His wife was unfaithful, and her gambling debts were larger than Telemann’s yearly income. Friends and his successful music and poetry publications helped him avoid financial ruin. By 1736, Telemann and his wife no longer lived together because of disagreements about money. Though he continued his work and duties, he created less music in the 1740s when he was in his 60s. He studied music theory and enjoyed hobbies like gardening and growing unusual plants, a popular activity in Hamburg at the time, which was also shared by Handel. Much of his music from the 1750s was based on earlier compositions. His eldest son, Andreas, died in 1755, and Andreas’ son, Georg Michael Telemann, was raised by Telemann. In his later years, Telemann faced health issues and poor eyesight but continued composing until the 1760s. He died on June 25, 1767, at the age of 86, from a condition described at the time as a "chest ailment." After his death, his godson, Johann Sebastian Bach’s second son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, took over his position in Hamburg.

Legacy and influence

Telemann was one of the most productive composers in history. His body of work includes more than 3,000 compositions, half of which are lost, and most have not been performed since the 18th century. Between 1708 and 1750, Telemann wrote 1,043 sacred cantatas and 600 overture-suites, as well as concertos for instrument combinations that other composers did not use. Musicologists first accurately estimated the number of his works in the 1980s and 1990s, when detailed thematic catalogs were published. During his lifetime and the second half of the 18th century, Telemann was widely respected by fellow musicians and critics. Many theorists, including Marpurg, Mattheson, Quantz, and Scheibe, used his works as models. Major composers like J.S. Bach and Handel studied his published music. Telemann’s popularity extended across Europe, with music orders coming from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and Spain. His popularity declined suddenly in the early 19th century, as some lexicographers dismissed him as a "polygraph" who prioritized quantity over quality. These views were influenced by a critic named Christoph Daniel Ebeling, who actually praised Telemann’s music but briefly mentioned his high output. After the revival of Bach’s music, Telemann’s works were seen as less important than Bach’s and lacking deep religious emotion. For example, by 1911, the Encyclopædia Britannica had no article about Telemann and only briefly mentioned him as a "lesser composer" compared to Handel and Bach.

Noted Bach biographers, such as Philipp Spitta and Albert Schweitzer, criticized Telemann’s cantatas but praised works they believed were by Bach, which were actually by Telemann. The last performance of a major Telemann work, Der Tod Jesu, was in 1832. His music was not performed again until the 20th century. Interest in Telemann’s music grew in the early 1900s and reached a peak with the Bärenreiter critical edition of the 1950s. Today, each of Telemann’s works is assigned a TWV number, which stands for Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis (Telemann Works Catalogue).

Telemann’s music helped shape the late Baroque and early Classical styles. Starting in the 1710s, he became a key creator of the German mixed style, which combined German, French, Italian, and Polish influences. Over time, his music incorporated more elements of the galant style but never fully embraced the Classical era’s ideals. His compositions remained complex in harmony and counterpoint, and in 1751, he criticized much contemporary music as too simple. Musicians influenced by Telemann included pupils of J.S. Bach in Leipzig, such as Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and Johann Friedrich Agricola, as well as composers who performed under his direction in Leipzig, like Christoph Graupner, Johann David Heinichen, and Johann Georg Pisendel. He also influenced composers of the Berlin lieder school and his many students, though none became major composers.

Telemann’s efforts to control the publication of his works set an early example for treating music as the composer’s intellectual property. This approach also applied to his public concerts, where he performed music originally written for private ceremonies attended only by a select group of the upper class.

Partial list of works

• Georg Philipp Telemann's Passions
• Cantata Cycle from 1716 to 1717
• Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst
• Die Donner-Ode ("The Ode of Thunder") TWV 6:3a-b
• Du bleibest dennoch unser Gott (first published in 1730)
• Ihr Völker, hört
• Ino (1765)
• Sei tausendmal willkommen (first published in 1730)
• Die Tageszeiten ("The Times of the Day") (1757)
• Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, Cantata for the Peace of Paris, 1763, for 5-part chorus, flute, 2 oboes, bassoon, 3 trumpets, 2 horns, strings & continuo, TWV 14:12
• Not by Telemann: Der Schulmeister ("The Schoolmaster" 1751), by Christoph Ludwig Fehre.

• Hamburger Admiralitätsmusik (several years including TWV 24:1)
• Der Tag des Gerichts (The Day of Judgement) (1761–62)
• Hamburgische Kapitänsmusik (various years)
• 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
• Trauermusik for Hamburg mayor Garlieb Sillem [nl] Schwanengesang TWV 4:6
• Der aus der Löwengrube errettete Daniel ("Daniel Delivered from the Lion's Den") (1731) [This work was incorrectly credited to Handel]
• Reformations-Oratorium 1755 Holder Friede, Heiliger Glaube TWV 13:18

• Grillen-symphonie TWV 50:1
• Ouverture (Wassermusik: Hamburger Ebb und Fluth) TWV 55:C3
• Ouverture des nations anciens et modernes in G TWV 55:G4
• Ouverture in G minor TWV 55:g4
• Suite in A minor for recorder, strings, and continuo TWV 55:a2
• Overture: Alster Echo in F, for 4 horns, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo, TWV55:F11

• Sinfonia Spirituosa in D major (2 violins, viola & continuo, trumpet ad libitum) TWV 44:1
• Tafelmusik (1733) ('Tafelmusik' refers to music meant to accompany a meal)
• Der getreue Musikmeister (1728), a musical journal containing 70 small vocal and instrumental compositions
• Twelve Paris quartets in two sets of six (Quadri a violino, flauto traversiere, viola da gamba o violoncello, e fondamento, 1730, reprinted as Six quatuors, 1736; Nouveaux quatuors en six suites, 1738) for flute, violin, viola da gamba or cello, continuo, TWV 43:G1, D1, A1, g1, e1, h1 (first set), TWV 43:D3, a2, G4, h2, A3, e4 (second set)
• Twelve Fantasias for Transverse Flute without Bass TWV 40:2–13
• Twelve Fantasias for Violin without Bass TWV 40:14–25
• Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo TWV 40:26–37
• Sonates sans basse (Telemann) TWV 40:101–106
• Six Canonical Sonatas TWV 40:118–123
• Six Concertos for Flute and Harpsichord TWV 42.

• 36 Fantasias for Keyboard TWV 33:1–36
• 6 Overtures for Keyboard TWV 32:5–10
• 6 Light Fugues with Small Fresh Additions TWV 30:21–26

• 48 Chorale Preludes for Organ TWV 31:1–48
• 20 Easy Fugues in 4 parts TWV 30:1–20
• 500 chorale harmonizations

• Violin Concerto in A major "Die Relinge" TWV 51:A4
• Concerto for Three Violins in F major, TWV 53:F1 (from Tafelmusik, part II)
• Four Concertos for Four Violins TWV 40:201–204

• Concerto in G major for Viola and String Orchestra, TWV 51:G9; the first known concerto for viola, still regularly performed today
• Concerto in G major for Two Violas and String Orchestra, TWV 52:G3

• Concerto for Two Horns in D major TWV 52:D1
• Concerto for Two Horns in D major TWV 52:D2
• Concerto for Horn and Orchestra in D major TWV 51:D8
• Concerto for Two Horns in F Major TWV