The oratorio Der aus der Löwengrübe errettete Daniel (Daniel in the Lion's Den) ascribed here to Georg Philipp Telemann isn't some discovery pulled out of a basement in Kiev or found straining coffee in Vienna. It's always been around, extant in at least two different late eighteenth-century manuscripts, both copies, but both identified as being the work of George Frederick Handel. This is clearly not right as Handel never composed a German oratorio; indeed, Handel's interest in oratorio didn't begin to evolve until early ...
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The oratorio Der aus der Löwengrübe errettete Daniel (Daniel in the Lion's Den) ascribed here to Georg Philipp Telemann isn't some discovery pulled out of a basement in Kiev or found straining coffee in Vienna. It's always been around, extant in at least two different late eighteenth-century manuscripts, both copies, but both identified as being the work of George Frederick Handel. This is clearly not right as Handel never composed a German oratorio; indeed, Handel's interest in oratorio didn't begin to evolve until early in his Italian years. This case of mistaken identity was not resolved until the discovery of two important clues in written sources: a letter from J.F. Agricola stating that he had just come into possession of a copy of Telemann's Daniel oratorio, and a listing in the sales catalog of the sometimes unreliable music dealer J.J. Westphal of this work along with some other known works of Telemann.After this identification was made, all of the other factors regarding Der aus der...
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