This is how Telemann decorated his music
The recorder and oboist Astrid Knöchlein presents a detailed and systematic study of the ornamentation practice of the Hamburg Baroque composer.
Writing a non-boring book about different ornamentation patterns in a composer's work is a challenge; there is a great danger of falling into dry schoolmasterly language and instantly putting off the readership.
In her new study on Georg Philipp Telemann's ornamentation practice, Astrid Knöchlein shows that such an undertaking is also possible in a lively and practical way. Using his methodical sonata collections (TWV 41 and 42, published in Hamburg in 1728, 1731 and 1732), the recorder player and oboist compiles a comprehensive catalog of ornaments - from the alternating note to the slur to salti composti and circolo - and meticulously locates them in the respective slow movements of the sonatas that Telemann used for ornamentation.
The "Handbuch der Verzierungen" as volume 2 is preceded by a first part with music-theoretical foundations, which underpins the practice with a lively presentation of the discourse in Telemann's time. Knöchlein gives his fellow musicians Johann Mattheson and Johann Joachim Quantz ample opportunity to speak through their most important treatises, so that the reader feels as if he or she is sitting in the middle of a theoretical circle of music scholars in northern Germany during the high baroque period.
To ensure that the musical examples in the second part are not merely dry musical notation, Knöchlein focuses in volume 1 on the theory of affects, which she explains in a clear, source-based and practical manner using musical parameters - key, melody, rhythm, harmony, meter and finally ornamentation.
One of the strengths of this two-volume book is that it allows for readings of varying degrees of depth: Anyone interested in Telemann's music-theoretical environment and the most common views on ornamentation practice at the time will find what they are looking for in the first part. Anyone wishing to study and analyze the methodical sonatas in detail, for example with regard to their interpretation, will find it difficult to avoid volume 2.
This book was written by a music lover for music lovers.
Astrid Knöchlein: Ornamentation - like Telemann! Georg Philipp Telemann's Methodical Sonatas and Trietti methodichi, ed. by Claire Genewein, Dorit Führer-Pawikovsky and Peter Schmid, 2 vol., 57+145 p., Fr. 65.00, Schmid & Genewein, Zurich 2024, ISBN 978-3-033-05348-9
