Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann's Instrumental Works

FAIN: FT-52490-04

Steven David Zohn
Temple University (Philadelphia, PA 19122-6003)

This project presents the first comprehensive study of the instrumental music of Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), a repertory of some 700 sonatas, fantasies, suites, and concertos. In addition to considering the music from historical, analytical, source-critical, and cultural perspectives, I offer the first detailed investigation of the composer's self-publishing business and situate selected works in a variety of musical and social contexts. Among the issues given special consideration are Telemann's fascination with musical orientalism, theatrical and satirical qualities of his programmatic suites, the musical and aesthetic implications of musical borrowing in the eighteenth century, and the generic issues raised by sonatas in concerto style.