Telemann Goes East

“Polish music through the lense of Georg Philipp Telemann”

Erik Bosgraaf and filoBarocco present their unique version of pieces and fragments from the Rostock manuscript TWV 45, written by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767). In this manuscript we can find an unusual account of folk music, traditionally handed down through generations orally. What makes this manuscript unique is that it gives us insight into the folk music practices of Poland in the beginning of the 18th century and we may start to understand how its influence seeped through in the music of Telemann. It seems that references to Polish music have been made also in the 16th and 17th centuries but it is rarely clear what is exactly meant by that. We can see in Telemann's music the use of octaves, rhythms and phrase lengths not usually found in baroque music. Telemann on occasion mentioned his fascination with Polish music, especially when he was working for Count Erdmann II von Promnitz (1683–1745), spending considerable time at his palaces in Sorau (now Żary) and Pleß (now Pszczyna).

"When the court spent six months in Pleß, an Upper Silesian territory ruled by the Promnitz family, I knew, as in Kraków, Polish and Hanakian music in its true barbaric beauty. In the common taverns it consisted of a fiddle tied to the body and tuned a third higher than usual so that it could overpower half a dozen others, a Polish Bock (bagpipe), a bass trombone and a regal. In more respectable places there was no regal; instead they increased the number of fiddles and bagpipes: once I saw thirty-six bagpipes and eight fiddles together. It is hard to believe what wonderful ideas these Bock players or fiddlers have when they improvise while the dancers rest. In eight days a listener could get enough ideas to last a lifetime. Suffice it to say that there is much good in this music, if handled properly. Since then I have written several large concertos and trios in this style, dressing them in an Italian garb with alternating adagios and allegros."

Polish music is often referred to as ‘barbaric’ music and it therefore makes sense to look at contemporary definitions of this. Johann Walther (1732) writes:

"When someone of little renown [...] takes the liberty of sometimes adding "wrong" passages [to their music]; or even over-relies on the use of such passages, which, on the contrary, more famous and astute musicians use only with moderation. Or: a barbarism is a rule-breaking musical passage that the more astute musicians employ only occasionally with diligence, [yet] uneducated composers often use it ignorantly.