A persistent myth about Johann Sebastian Bach is that he recycled his music so often as a time saving measure. If one strikes a comparison to his contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann, however, it is clear that recycling music was not necessarily an easier way to go for a composer of the German Baroque, as Telemann seldom recycled much of anything, yet produced a veritable mountain of cantatas. Telemann, not Bach, was considered the major force in the German music of his day, and it was he who enjoyed most important ...
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A persistent myth about Johann Sebastian Bach is that he recycled his music so often as a time saving measure. If one strikes a comparison to his contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann, however, it is clear that recycling music was not necessarily an easier way to go for a composer of the German Baroque, as Telemann seldom recycled much of anything, yet produced a veritable mountain of cantatas. Telemann, not Bach, was considered the major force in the German music of his day, and it was he who enjoyed most important commissions -- cantatas and oratorios for the opening of grand new churches, the installation of priests, large civic functions, and other auspicious events. As the "second-greatest" German composer of his era, Johann Sebastian Bach often found himself in the unenviable position of composing workaday cantatas to honor the achievements of relatively minor local dignitaries, to celebrate their wives' birthdays, or for some other thoroughly forgettable occasion. In most instances, the musical...
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