The Classical Music Book

106

See also: Corel li’s Concerti Grossi 80–81 ■ Water Music 84–89 ■ The Four

Seasons 92–97 ■ C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in A major 120–121

T

he demand for Tafelmusik

(table music)—background

music for banquets—grew

steadily from the mid-16th century

onward. Musique de table, a

collection of such music by Georg

Philipp Telemann, a prolific

German composer who relished

the assimilation and mastery

of different musical styles, draws

together a range of chamber genres

that lent themselves to Tafelmusik.

Telemann marketed the collection

as a prestige product that could be

purchased by subscription.

Telemann’s collection divides

into three “productions,” each one

containing an orchestral dance

suite, a concerto, a quartet, a trio

sonata, and solo sonata, finishing

with an orchestral “conclusion.”

Apart from the dance suites,

considerable use is made of the

slow-fast-slow-fast four-movement

pattern of the traditional Sonata da

Chiesa (a genre of instrumental

chamber or orchestral music

sometimes performed at church

services). Each “production”

provides enough music for an

evening’s entertainment and

contains meticulously crafted

music that is always memorably

melodious—even evoking popular

folk songs at times.

Handel, who was among the

collection’s 206 subscribers,

appears to have borrowed some of

its musical ideas. Themes in his

oratorio The Arrival of the Queen of

Sheba bear resemblance to material

from the Concerto in the second

“production” of Musique de table. ■

TELEMANN IS ABOVE

ALL PRAISE

MUSIQUE DE TABLE ( 1733 ),

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Tafelmusik

BEFORE

1650 Joachim von Sandrart’s

painting Das Friedensmahl

(“The peace meal”) depicts

musicians performing

Tafelmusik at a banquet for

a diplomatic conference.

1680s Printed collections of

Tafelmusik, mostly by German

composers of the day, become

more common.

AFTER

1770s The genre of Tafelmusik

is gradually replaced by other

types of “light” musical

entertainment such as the

divertimento and serenade.

1820 An engraving by Johann

Wunder depicts a performance

of Tafelmusik at a municipal

banquet in “Krähwinkel”—an

invented place name intended

to suggest old-fashioned,

small-town parochialism.

He [Telemann] could

write a church piece in

eight parts with the

same expedition another

would write a letter.

George Frideric Handel

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