Telemann: Tafelmusik, First Production

The nineteenth and early twentieth century neglect of Telemann, at times bordering on contempt, has gradually given way to a more just evaluation of his genius, and a recognition of his true place in musical history. We now see in him not only an accomplished and facile writer in all the familiar forms of baroque composition, but a great forerunner of the rococo. His music is highly inventive and, if it lacks the depth of Bach, it is extremely polished and, in its bend toward experimentation explores a great many imitative and programmatic devices, the influence of which reaches as far as the romantic age. Telemann’s fusion of German and French styles, his use of northern polyphony to express a joie de vivre, rarely encountered up to then, give his music a cosmopolitan grace which, in recent decades, led to its wider acceptance. There is full justification for the new Telemann renaissance we are experiencing at present. Taken on its own terms, this is music able to give much joy and pleasure to the listener. 

Of Telemann’s vast instrumental output, the Musique de Table is probably the most important and impressive part. Musique de Table or Tafelmusik was music intended to be played as background, or rather entertainment for festive banquets. Telemann composed his in three different productions or cycles, which are formally quite similar, but differ as to instrumentation. All consist of an orchestral suite, a quartet, an orchestral concerto, a trio sonata, a solo sonata with continuo and an orchestral conclusion, which, as a finale to the whole cycle, really represents the final movement to the opening orchestral suite. Each of these constituent parts is a complete composition in itself and can be performed separately.