Georg Philipp Telemann (born March 14, 1681 in Magdeburg and died June 25, 1767 in Hamburg) is a German composer.
He was during his long creative period one of the most famous German composers of the Baroque age. He appears as one of the most prolific composers of all time (at least on the basis of the scores that have reached us: about 3,700) >>>. Throughout its production - nearly 6,000 works >>>, many of which were unfortunately lost - there are twelve series of cantatas, one hundred oratorios, 44 passions, more than 600 French openings, 40 operas and many concertos, orchestral suites, quartets and sonatas. His friend Handel was able to say that he was able to compose eight-voice religious music as naturally as if to write a letter. Through the innovative impulses he has given both to the art of composition and to musical sensibility, he has powerfully marked the music of the first half of the XVIII century .
A gifted child, Telemann received his first music lessons very early. But his parents, descendants of a line of Lutheran pastors, wanted him to have a brilliant academic career. If he learns to play the violin, the flute and the harpsichord, he nevertheless seems hostile to any teaching of composition. A largely self-taught musician, Telemann became a composer despite the wishes of his family. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld and Hildesheim, he had his first great success as a composer during his law studies in Leipzig, where he created an amateur orchestra, mounted opera shows and took the musical direction of the 'university. After a stay at the court of Sorau, then at that of Eisenach, he was appointed in 1712 director of music of the city and master of chapel of two churches in Frankfurt-on-Main, where he began the edition of his own works.
From 1721 he became, as Cantor Johannei and Director Musicians of Hamburg, one of the most prestigious positions of the German musical world and took the direction of the opera shortly thereafter. Here again, while remaining in touch with the princely courts, he regularly organized public concerts for the bourgeois elite of the city. An eight-month stay in Paris in 1737 and 1738 finally gave him access to international renown. While his career prospered, Telemann's personal life was always troubled: his first wife died a few months after their marriage and the second accumulated extramarital affairs and gambling debts before leaving him.
