Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann (1683-1767) was the most celebrated composer of his era, which included Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach; he outlived them both. Telemann's output of more than 3000 extant works is the largest of any major composer in Western music, including 31 cantata cycles for the Lutheran church calendar. He was one of the first publishers of his own music, and his collections Der Getreue Music-Meister (1723) and Musique de Table (1728) were bestsellers. Telemann seldom repeated himself, yet he created many compact versions of larger cantatas and worked with modular scoring; his Quadri (1730) foreshadowed the string quartet medium. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis , All Music Guide