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_ | nextthree centuries.

Reviewed by Kenneth Cooper

Kor Carl Phii.ipp Emanuel Bach, the death in Hamburg of Cieorg Philipp Telemann on June 25. 1767, was a fortu-natc cvcnt. Not personally: there was (or had been) great affection betwccn Telemann and the Bachs. Telemann was Philipp’s godfather and had. according to Philipp. “in his youngcr days scen a good dcal of” Sebastian Bach. On the latter’s death in 1750. Telemann eulo-gized. “And what thy pen had writ. the highcst art displaying./Did some with joy and some with envy contemplatc.” But Telcmann’s professional legacy to Philipp consistcd of his supervisory posts at the Johanneum school and at Hamburgi main churchcs. enabling Philipp to obtain his release from the constrain-ing court of Frederick the Great and. morę importantly. to relocate in Hamburg.

Hamburg, in the early- and mid-eighteenth century. was. after London, the most liberated city in Europę, espe-cially as it accorded its citizens a ccrtain dcgree of freedom from dependence on aristocratic patronage. This North German port was among the ńrst communi-tics in Europę to support public concerts as well as a celcbratcd public opera house. which. under Reinhard Keiseri direction. featured a widc rangę of ver-nacular theater. In such a frec-lance

62 sccne, an cntcrprising composer could maintain a good church position and also be able to teach, publish. write for the opera, put on his own events. and other-wise respond to the forccs of supply and demand. In 1723, Telemann wrote: “Al-though musie slides downhill at Frankfurt, here it climbs steadily; and I believe that nowhere can one find a place wherc the mind and spirit of the musician is morę stimulated than at Hamburg. One great factor in this is that as well as the many nobility here. the city fathersand indeed the wholc towncoun-cil attend the public concerts; they are attractcd by the sensible judgment of so many connoisseurs and clever people. Lhen, too. there is the opera, now in the fullest flower; and finally that nervus rerum gerendarum [money], which can nardly be said to be glued fast to the mu-sic-lovers here.”

Handel was attracted to Hamburg in his impetuous youth (1703) for per-suasive reasons; according to Paul Henry Lang. he craved the “pcrsonal freedom to raisc himseif out of his provincial milieu to a life of culture. ... The first step in acquiring this freedom from constrictingsocial inhibitions was migra-Jion to a ‘free city,' to the quasi-republic of Hamburg.” Bach. too. applied for a position there in 1720. albeit unsuccess-fully. and it is said that even SchUtz wanted to retire there.

Telemann was forty when hc ar-rived in Hamburg. having spent some

years at various courts. Born in 1681 in

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Magdeburg (on Holy Ghost Street), hc showed an early musical gift and “taught mysclf” violin, cittem. and other instru-ments even “before I knew there was such a thing as musical notation." At Leipzig University (1701-04). he studied languages and liberał arts and founded the student Collegium Musicum later to be led by Bach. In encouraging or engag-ing the students to play at town functions and church services in Leipzig, he man-aged to undercut Thomascantor Johann Kuhnau’s authority and earn his ever-lasting annoyance. One of the few' people to know' both Bach and Handel personally, Telemann was a sociable and popular man of immense vcrsatility. He tended an enormous collection of exotic plants. to which Handel, from London, madę a few contributions; hc wrote scads of poetry, mostly silly verses tossed off easily while writing letters; he leamed engraving so as to be able to publish his works himseif; and in his “spare time” he translated Defoe’$ Robinson Crusoe (1719) into German. Hc and his (second) wife had ten childrcn, although she eventually ran ofT with a

Clrcla 3 on Raadar-Sarvlca Card ►

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