Jin-Ah Kim: Zur Korrelation von Musikkonzept und Person bei G. Ph. Telemann im Vergleich zu J. S. Bach

This study contends that the characterization of Georg Philipp Telemann’s music throughout reception history as simplistic and shallow is based on the composer’s personal convictions and objectives. The specifics of Telemann’s beliefs and their correlation to music become clearer when a comparison is drawn with Johann Sebastian Bach. Analyses of their Passions and selected written statements illustrate their respective convictions regarding God, human existence, and earthly strivings and how these correspond to their compositional methods. Bach, who saw in God the reason for and goal of all human endeavor, advanced a hermeneutic, quasi exegetical approach: “To the glory of the most high God, that my neighbor may be benefited thereby” (1720). Telemann viewed God as the ultimate authority but not as the reason and end goal for all human thought and action, and, as laid out in the preface of his journal Der getreue Music-Meister (1728), he devoted his musical “work” to the “service” of facilitating the listener’s comprehension.

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