Germany Bach, Janitsch, Telemann
Although less than a year long, Telemann’s tenure as kapellmeister (director of music) for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz in Sorau (now Żary, Poland) and his travels and experiences of folk music in the region inspired him greatly. Writing in his diary: “It is hard to believe how wonderful the ideas of those pipers and fiddlers are when, during a break in the dancing, they begin to improvise. Listening to them with attention, in eight days a man could collect enough musical ideas for his whole life!” - Georg Philipp Telemann By synthesising various national styles, German composers like Telemann enjoyed success and indeed established a musical style independent of the prevailing French and Italian tastes. “I am a great fan of playing Telemann’s music. A lot of his influences are reminiscent of music from other people and places, but somehow transported to a higher plane. Often simple components become long lines of melody and harmony, always with a great sense of character. Telemann’s imagination is almost without boundaries, and he constantly surprises both performers and listeners alike with the breadth and control of starkly different musical influences.” - Melissa Farrow, Program Curator
In their music, as with all forms of their art, the 17th century German-speaking lands were particularly susceptible to foreign influence due to their political disunity in the wake of the Thirty Years War. As such, an understanding of German music following this devastating conflict is usually gleaned through the prism of its foreign elements (French, Italian, Polish, etc.). This is true of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), in which different national styles are sometimes treated separately and at other times skillfully combined. Along with many of his relatives and German contemporaries, part of young Johann Sebastian’s education was an initiation into French music and dance forms. As a 15-year-old Bach travelled on foot with a friend to Lüneburg, where – on top of his ongoing education – Bach participated in music performances of styles popularised by the court of Louis XIV in Versailles. This music from Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B minor, here transcribed for gallichon, closely aligns with the typical characteristics of slower courtly sarabandes : set in a slow triple metre, with a strong sense of balance based on four-bar phrases. Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1763) is the latest composer represented in this program, and was contemporary with Bach’s most successful son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Born in Schweidnitz, Silesia (now Świdnica, south-western Poland), he eventually became a personal violinist to Prussian ruler Frederick the Great. The music of this Quartet in G major reflects the aesthetics of the galant style then fashionable in Frederick’s court. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was born in Magdeburg just four years before JS Bach. Telemann, like Bach, had strong connections with the Lutheran Church: his father was a clergyman, his mother the daughter of a clergyman, and his elder brother also took orders. However, due to his considerable musical talent he would not follow in his brother’s footsteps, despite facing strong resistance from his mother who forbade any musical activities and insisted he study law instead. This resistance only heightened Telemann’s obsession with music, and the secretive past-time of a young man grew into a focused and prolific international career backed by a large group of subscribers, rather than any one aristocratic patron. Whereas Bach had remained in what we know as Germany for his entire career and life, Telemann travelled extensively, and feverishly assimilated many of the foreign musical styles and forms he encountered into his own compositional and performing practices.
MONIQUE O’DEA, PHOTO BY GEORGES ANTONI
Program notes by Joanna Butler, Melissa Farrow & Hugh Ronzani, 2022
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