Telemann: Ich hoffete aufs Licht - Funeral Music for Emperor Karl VII

La Stagione Frankfurt, Schneider, Michael, soliści

CPO 777 603-2

Telemann wrote funeral compositions for many persons. His setting of the Funeral Music for Emperor Charles VII – transmitted solely in the form of a sketch in the composer’s own hand with numerous corrections and writing simplifications and in part without a text – already points to typical features of his late vocal work: a treatment of the vocal parts that is melodically sometimes austere, mostly coloratura-poor, and systematic in its employment of verbal meter, a melodic design sharpened by succinct rhythms and suspensions, and a harmonic structure enriched by pointedly set interdominants. This funerary music is set in the context of the state compositions ordered by the Hamburg city council for the elections, coronations, weddings, and deaths of Holy Roman Emperors of the German Nation. These works were usually performed in churches and sometimes even in liturgical settings and thus represent a special branch in Hamburg church music. The Hamburg city council assigned special importance to the poetic text for the settings. It almost goes without saying that Telemann again, despite the solemn formal occasion, again develops his own very personal musical language that goes straight to the heart.

CD x 1

CPO

3/1/11

761203760329