Georg Philipp Telemann

Telemann is one of those composers history almost buried under Bach's towering reputation, which is honestly a shame, because in his own lifetime this guy was the star — more celebrated across Europe than Bach or Handel, and for good reason. Born in Magdeburg in 1681, he taught himself music almost entirely on his own, went to Leipzig University, and eventually became music director in Hamburg, where he spent the better part of four decades churning out an almost absurd volume of work. We're talking thousands of pieces — concertos, suites, operas, oratorios — and the quality holds up. Put on his Water Music or the Tafelmusik suites and you hear Baroque music that's elegant without being stiff, inventive without being showy. He lived to 86 and kept composing nearly to the end, which says something. I think he deserves a proper rediscovery.

Name (English)

Georg Philipp Telemann

Name (Japanese)

ゲオルク・フィリップ・テレマン

Reading

げおるく・ふぃりっぷ・てれまん

Born

March 14, 1681 – June 25, 1767

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Rooster

Origin

Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Occupation

classical composer / chapelmaster / organist / composer / independent publisher

University

Leipzig University

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B2%E3%82%AA%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%BB%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3

Tags

• Saxony-Anhalt
• classical composer
• chapelmaster
• organist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.