Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann was born in Magdeburg on March 14, 1681. Telemann was not born into a musical family. He never took lessons and was self taught. From an early age Telemann started to show his talent for music, finishing an opera at the age of 12. But his family was against Telemann becoming a professional musician because the job at the time was neither appealing nor profitable. Telemann’s mother even took all of his instruments away and sent him to a school in Zellerfeld, in the hope of having her son take a more profitable career. In contrary to his mother’s hope, Telemann continued to compose and study music. He almost entirely taught himself how to play the recorder, organ, violin, viola da gamba, flute, oboe, chalumeau, double bass, and bass trombone. Travelling made a new way for him to experience new musical styles, and Corelli was one of his early influences.

In 1701 Telemann entered the Leipzig University where he studied law. At Leipzig he was recognized for his musical talent and was called to many musical duties. He was commissioned to write music for the city’s two main churches, gave concerts of his music, and in the following year became the director of the opera house in Leipzig and cantor of one of its churches. He left Leipzig in 1705 for the position as kapellmeister (conductor of court orchestra) for the court of Count Erdmann II in Sorau (now Zary, Poland). In 1721, he became the musical director of the five main churches in Hamburg.

During his lifetime Telemann wrote more than eight hundred works. He is known for writing concertos for unique combinations of instruments. He wrote 11 operas, 170 choral works, 123 concertos, and more than 100 orchestral works. Telemann continuously wrote music until his death on June 25, 1767.