According to the Guinness Book of Records, Telemann is the most prolific composer of all time, with more than 3,600 works to his credit. He is estimated to have written more music than Bach and Handel combined (he also led a long life during which he was active to the end at age 86)!
For the largest part of his life, from 1721 to 1767, Telemann lived and worked in Hamburg where he was the city's musical director. Telemann was the most famous composer and musician living in Germany during his lifetime. He was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, who is now considered
the "greater" composer, while Telemann was considered more important
during his lifetime. In comparison to Bach with his sometimes difficult counterpoint, it can be said that Telemann
wrote in a more easily understandable style that immediately appealed to the listeners. At the center of Telemann's creative principle is a melodic ideal grounded in song - he was often characterized as a composer of beautiful melodies.
In addition to operas, his large oeuvre includes much church music, including cantatas, oratorios, passion music, motets and psalms, as well as a large number (more than 1,000) of instrumental works, both chamber and orchestral. Only part of all this work has so far been sufficiently investigated. Telemann wrote new choral works for various spiritual and secular events. From 1716 to 1766 he wrote around 1,200 church cantatas, 23 passion musicals, five passion oratorios, thirteen psalm musicals, nine secular cantatas and serenades, thirteen motets and six masses.
The sacred oratorio Der Tag des Gerichts was composed in 1762, as Telemann's final oratorio. The title refers to "Judgement Day" or "The Day of Reckoning," the tribunal of the Archangel Michael.
The work is one of Telemann's greatest achievements and belongs to that almost miraculous decade between 1755 and 1765 when the composer underwent a veritable creative rejuvenation. The work was first performed in Hamburg in 1762 when Telemann was 81 years old. From start to finish this beautiful score has all the freshness of invention and vitality that we might have expected from a man half his age. The text is by Wilhelm Alers who described it as a ''Poem for Singing in Four Contemplations.'' In contrast to what so often was the case, the text has been written with great skill and considerable linguistic art – using words of few syllables rich in vowels, preferring verbs that carry the action forward. It must have appealed to the octogenarian composer who brings it to life with a wealth of instrumental color, affective word-painting and striking contrasts.
"When the trumpet sounds, the dead will be awakened to everlasting life." These Biblical words suggested to Telemann the introductory trumpet call of his oratorio. In addition he lets the thunder, the wrath of God, rumble darkly and menacingly. The Day of Judgment begins. With these signals a gripping musical event starts that opens a rich, symbol-laden world. Allegorical and Biblical figures appear, and choirs of believers, angels and the elect, the blessed and the heavenly host sing. The Day of Judgment is not only a monument in the history of the German
oratorio, but also introduces the theological discussions and eschatological
thought of Teleman's day.
The oratorio was in fact part of a group of works begun by Telemann in 1755 which contain a logical sequence: "Der Tod Jesu," "Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu," "Der Tag des Gerichts" - as well as the two-part Donner-Ode, a cantata on the occasion of the Lisbon earthquake. In these late works, Telemann in each case employs his compositional means in a way that gives an unmistakably individual character to the work.
This is solemn, but also very beautiful music - above all, Telemann-like, very melodious.
Text at Bach Cantatas.com (PDF).
Listen to the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Capella Amsterdam conducted by Andrea Marcon in NTR Matinee (Dutch Television).