SHARING the TREASURE

When a long-lost set of Telemann bass viol fantaisies was found in a private collection a few years ago, Mikhail ‘Misha’ Galaganov set about arranging them for the viola. Here he explores the history of the works and reveals some of the challenges he encountered in his quest

Portrait of Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann is one of the most important figures in Western music history.

Self-taught in theory and composition, he excelled on various instruments in spite of having no professional instruction. Composition and musical invention came easily to him.

What made Telemann so influential? He made sacred music more emotive and accessible to the general populace; he created the first German-language music periodical; he was among those who set up music societies (collegia musica) around Germany; and he established series of concerts that were among the first for which admission was charged. He also was also the one who introduced to Germany the English process of making engraved plates from pewter instead of copper; and who was responsible for the huge popularity in Germany of the ouverture, a type of orchestral suite that originated in France with Jean-Baptiste Lully.

Johann Mattheson (1681–1764), one of the most respected musicians at the time, wrote about Telemann in Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte in 1740: ‘Lully is praised and Corelli is glorified, but only Telemann is elevated above any praise.’ J.S. Bach arranged Telemann’s concertos, borrowed movements from his cantatas for his own pieces, and used cantatas by Telemann for church services in Leipzig (in fact, some of Telemann’s cantatas were initially attributed to Bach). Handel was one of 206 people from eight countries who subscribed to the three volumes of Telemann’s Tafelmusik (Musique de table) and used movements from it for his own musical ideas. He marvelled that Telemann was capable of writing an eight-part polyphonic motet as easily as anyone else might write a letter. Mozart’s father included 15 pieces by Telemann – more works than by any other composer – in the study book he compiled for his young son. C.P.E. Bach thought that Telemann was ‘a great painter’, and described how he heard him playing ‘an air in which he expressed the amazement and terror caused by the apparition of a spirit; even without the words […] one immediately understood what the music thought to express.’

Telemann considered singing to be the basis of all music, and he was a supreme master of tuneful invention. He preferred gracefulness and melodiousness in music, and disliked contrapuntal style for its own sake, believing that young musicians should avoid learning from the older generation how to ‘write compositions for 15 or 20 voices in which not even Diogenes with his lantern could discover a drop of melody’. His own style combined clarity, depth and intellect with warmth, elegance and charm. He had complete mastery of all forms of music of the time and synthesised all contemporary musical trends into his own, ever-evolving style, which at the end of his life led the way to later composers such as Haydn and Mozart, essentially forming a bridge between Baroque and Classical styles.

TELEMANN’S FANTAISIES The fantaisie (or fancy in England, and fantasie in Germany) was popular in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The term usually referred to a free style of composition without formal or precise restrictions; however, there were examples of very organised fantaisies as well as works of pure improvisation. For Telemann, the term did not imply absence of steady tempo or pulse, but freedom of forms, and while the number of movements varies among his fantaisies (usually there are either two or three), most of the works explore various sonata models.

In the 1730s, Telemann was inspired (possibly by Bach) to compose fantaisies for solo instruments, all of which were published: thirty-six for harpsichord (c.1733), twelve for solo flute (c.1733), twelve for solo violin (1735) and twelve for bass viol (1735). The viol fantaisies were considered lost until 2015, when the musicologist François-Pierre Goy found the only known surviving copy of the published set in a music collection that had been donated in 2000 to the Lower Saxony State Archive, Osnabrück, by Christiane and Hans Christoph Homann, the owners of Schloss Ledenburg inBissendorf-Nemden, Lower Saxony.

The so-called Ledenburg Collection comprises music mainly featuring the bass viol. With the exception of the Telemann, the mostly manuscript collection contains repertoire of the early Classical period (much of it transcribed for the viol) and probably began to be developed in around 1750, possibly by Eleonore von Grothaus (later von Münster, right), whose family home was Schloss Ledenburg.

The way the viol Fantaisies were originally published was certainly not ideal for preservation of the works for posterity: they were printed serially, with two released every fortnight, each taking up just one side of a sheet of paper. (The composer had a few years earlier successfully published music in a similar manner in his fortnightly periodical Der getreue Musik-Meister, in each issue leaving one of the compositions incomplete, as a sort of musical cliffhanger, and publishing the rest in the next issue.) In the summer of 1735, Telemann had posted an advertisement stating: ‘Editions Telemann will publish 12 Fantaisies for the viola da gamba without bass and 6 moralischen Cantaten without instruments so that they will appear on alternate Thursdays: 2 Fantaisies the first Thursday and one cantata the next […] This will commence on 4 August.’ The cover for the set was published at the same time as the last issue, probably in October of 1735, and reads:

IN THE 1730S, TELEMANN WAS INSPIRED (POSSIBLY BY BACH) TO COMPOSE FANTAISIES FOR SOLO INSTRUMENTS

Fantaisies pour le Basse de Violle faites et dedieés à Mr. Pierre Chaunell, par Telemann.

There would probably have been few viola da gamba players among Telemann’s subscribers, especially ones with sufficient technical abilities to play the pieces. There is no doubt that many individual pages containing the Fantaisies were misplaced during the three-month period of publication, and if a few complete sets were collected, they either were lost or destroyed during subsequent years. Thus, it is all the more remarkable that even the one set survives.

If one is tempted to compare works for solo instruments by Bach with these Fantaisies by Telemann, one must remember that Telemann restricted himself to one side of a single page per piece. In spite of this self-imposed succinctness, he used an astonishing variety of ideas, forms and sound colours in these works. Each odd-numbered piece features a relatively sophisticated fugue or fugato movement. The fast movement in no.2 is a ‘concerto’ with alternating ritornellos and solo passages, and even a place for a cadenza. Many movements use dance rhythms. Among the slow movements, there is what seems like a passacaglia (in no.8), a sarabande (no.9), an introverted and deep Grave (no.11) and a beautiful, singing Siciliana (no.10).

THE CHALLENGES OF TRANSCRIPTION

Instrumentation choices played an important part in Telemann’s music. He wrote that it is necessary for composers to know the characteristic features of each instrument, otherwise, the violin could end up being treated like an organ, the flute and oboe like trumpets, and the gamba would simply ‘saunter along’ as a bass. ‘One should write according to the nature of every instrument,’ said Telemann.

Consequently, the Fantaisies for bass viol are idiomatically composed for that instrument; however, one might get the impression that they should be easy to adapt for the modern viola. They are, after all, mostly written in the alto clef, the viola’s tonal qualities are similar to those of the bass viol, and two of the strings on both instruments, C3 and D4, match exactly. Nevertheless, there are problems that need to be resolved before violists can enjoy working on these pieces written for the bass viol.

The bass viol has six strings (D2, G2, C3, E3, A3 and D4), and its range reaches almost an octave below that of the viola, which is tuned to C3, G3, D4 and A4. Furthermore, the bass viol is tuned in perfect 4ths, except for the major 3rd between the third and fourth strings, while the viola is tuned in perfect 5ths. The difference in tuning makes some intervals and chords either difficult or impossible to play on a viola.

The range between the lowest and highest strings on the bass viol is exactly two octaves, a minor 3rd wider than that on the viola. The highest note in the Fantaisies, E5, is a major 9th above the viol’s highest string. Consequently, the entire range of notes, from the lowest to the highest, of the Fantaisies as conceived by Telemann is three octaves plus a major second – a wide range of registers and colours that includes many expressive possibilities. If violists were to take the notes that fall below viola range and mechanically transpose them one octave higher, while playing all other notes as written, the voicing and contrasts would suffer and the tonal range would be lost. Besides, it is unnatural to transpose melodic lines in the middle of a phrase or out of context – this is a common musical and technical challenge when transcribing great pieces of music for another instrument. If voices are inverted for the sake of transposition or for convenience, polyphony is distorted and the composer’s intentions are lost.

The opening page of the manuscript of Telemann’s Fantaisie no.1

IN SPITE OF A SELF-IMPOSED SUCCINCTNESS, TELEMANN USED AN ASTONISHING VARIETY OF IDEAS, FORMS AND SOUND COLOURS IN THESE WORKS

To make a transcription effective and organic, one must consider the viola’s idiomatic use of open strings and harmonics, positions, fingerings and range. For example, considerations can include the transposition of uncomfortable passages to a higher register and extending the range of the Fantaisies on the viola to the note B5 – a major 9th above the instrument’s highest string, which would allow for timbral contrasts similar to those on the original instrument.

EXAMPLE 1 Telemann Fantaisie no.7, opening of third movement: the bass voice at the end of this phrase is structurally and harmonically important. Rather than simply transposing the 3rds that are impossible on the viola (in brackets) or omitting the bass, more natural would be to transpose all twelve bars up an octave.

EXAMPLE 2 Telemann Fantaisie no.1, first movement, bars 22–3: F sharp is implied by the context of the descending middle voice, so it is acceptable to omit that note on the viola rather than transfer the whole phrase up an octave and thus lose the pedal on the open-string D.

EXAMPLE 3 Telemann Fantaisie no.7, first movement, bars 19–20: The low D3 is important for maintaining the chromatic line in the bass. The last melodic F#3 is also important. Playing grace notes from D to F sharp on the viola makes it sound natural and keeps both voices audibly present.

EXAMPLE 6 Telemann Fantaisie no.5, first movement, bars 31–3: It is possible to play this section on the viola as written; however, while the passage sounds amazing on the bass viol with the repeated open string A, it sounds dull and uncomfortable on the viola with the stopped A. Moving the lower voice up an octave makes use of the open viola A string. It becomes easier to play and is much more effective.

EXAMPLE 7 Telemann Fantaisie no.1, first movement, bars 17, 36 and 43: examples of the creative use of fingerings in a viola adaptation.

INTERVALS AND CHORDS

The interval of a major 3rd C3–E3, which is formed on open strings in the bass viol, cannot be played on the viola, whose open strings are C3 and G3. The lowest possible major 3rd on the viola is Eb3–G3. In order to play the 3rds written lower than that, a violist has to make a choice, depending on context and phrasing. The choices include transposing an entire melody up an octave (the rarest option) (example 1); omitting the upper or the lower voice in the range of the low 3rds (example 2); and introducing grace-note ornamentation that begins on the lower note (example 3).

For chords that are impossible to play on the viola, a violist can move some voices up or down an octave to utilise an open string (example 4); reduce a chord to an octave (example 5); omit some notes to make chords natural on the viola, or transpose entire chords to another register. There are several chords that are possible to play on the viola as written for the bass viol, with a transposition up an octave and a little stretch.

TRANSPOSITIONS

In situations where the fingering or the melodic use of intervals seems unnatural on the viola, and no amount of practice would change this fact, transposition of entire melodies or sections up an octave usually solves the problem, making such sections feel a lot better and more natural on the instrument.

Reasons for transposition should include enabling the use of open strings and harmonics. For example, music that makes use of the open A3 string on the bass viol might feel uncomfortable for a violist in the original range because of the absence of the open A string in that range, but it would sound natural and more resonant an octave higher, where the viola’s open A4 string could be utilised (example 6). Sometimes it will be necessary to transpose a longer part of a phrase or a section up an octave on the viola to utilise the entire original diapason of notes composed by the composer.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Violists need to be open-minded about fingerings when adapting bass viol music for the modern viola. Some combinations of melodic lines and intervals that work well on the bass viol are not comfortable on a violin-family instrument. Violists will need to use fingerings with contractions, expansions, extensions and a blend of positions (example 7).

Ornamentation and improvisation are natural in Telemann’s music. A great inspiration for this can be found in another work by Telemann, Zwölf methodische Sonaten for flute or violin and basso continuo, where Telemann himself provided optional written-out ornamentation in the slow movements.

A woman playing a viola da gamba; painting by Gabriel Metsu (1663)

TELEMANN’S FANTAISIES DESERVE TO BE IN THE VIOLA’S REPERTOIRE AS MUCH AS BACH’S SOLO WORKS DO

Ornamentation is also useful for making transpositions more natural and seamless.

Bass viol music is almost perfectly suited to the viola, and Telemann’s Fantaisies deserve to be in the viola’s repertoire just as much as Bach’s solo works do. These recently found pieces thus represent a valuable addition not only to the viol repertoire, but also to that of the viola, from a major Baroque composer. Violists might also like to explore Telemann’s excellent sonatas for bass viol with basso continuo.