Editing Georg Philipp Telemann (section)

===Early life (1681–1712)===
[[Image:Stadtansicht vor 1720 019.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Magdeburg, Telemann's birthplace, in the early 18th century. Some 50&nbsp;years before Telemann's birth the city was [[Sack of Magdeburg|sacked]] and had to be rebuilt.]]

Telemann was born in [[Magdeburg]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Einstein |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Einstein |url= |title=Telemann, Georg Philipp |encyclopedia=Hugo Riemanns Musik-Lexikon |date=1929 |publisher= |location= |language=de}}</ref> then the capital of the semi-autonomous [[Duchy of Magdeburg]] within the [[Electorate of Brandenburg]], in the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. His father Heinrich, [[deacon]] at the {{interlanguage link|Heilig-Geist-Kirche (Magdeburg)|de}}, died when Telemann was four.<ref name="Hirschmann" /> The future composer received his first music lessons at 10, from a local organist, and became immensely interested in music in general, and composition in particular. Despite opposition from his mother and relatives, who forbade any musical activities, Telemann found it possible to study and composed in secret, even creating an opera at the age of 12.<ref>As Telemann claimed in his autobiography provided to and printed by Johann Mattheson (1681–1764) in the latter's ''Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte'' (1740), p. 355: "... Ich eine ertappte hamburger Oper, Sigismundus, etwa im zwölfften Jahr meines Alters, in die Musik seßte, welche auch auf einer errichteten Bühne toll genug abegefungen wurde, und wohen ich selbst meinen Held ziemlich troßig vorstellte." [... About my twelfth year of age I took hold of a Hamburg opera, Sigismund, [and] set it to music, which was performed well enough on a home-made stage, and where I personally presented my hero pretty defiantly.]</ref>

In 1697, after studies at the Domschule in Magdeburg and at a school in [[Zellerfeld]], Telemann was sent to the famous Gymnasium Andreanum at [[Hildesheim]],<ref name="Hirschmann" /> where his musical talent flourished, supported by school authorities, including the rector himself. Telemann was becoming equally adept both at composing and performing, teaching himself flute, oboe, violin, viola da gamba, recorder, double bass, and other instruments.<ref name="Bergmann" /> In 1701 he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig to become a student at the [[Leipzig University]], where he intended to study law.<ref name="Bergmann" /> He ended up becoming a professional musician, regularly composing works for the [[St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig|Nikolaikirche]] and even St. Thomas ([[Thomaskirche]]).<ref name="Bergmann" /> In 1702 he became director of the municipal opera house ''Opernhaus auf dem Brühl'', and later music director at the Neukirche. Prodigiously productive, Telemann supplied a wealth of new music for Leipzig, including several operas, one of which was his first major opera, ''[[Germanicus (opera)|Germanicus]]''. However, he became engaged in a conflict with the cantor of the Thomaskirche, [[Johann Kuhnau]]. The conflict intensified when Telemann started employing numerous students for his projects, including those who were Kuhnau's, from the Thomasschule.<ref>Spitta, Phillip, Johann Sebastian Bach (publ 1873–1880) translated from the German (1884–1899) by Clara Bell and J.A. Fuller-Maitland, Dover 1951 (republished 1959, 1992, 2015), Vol II, pp. 204–207: "The direct connection between opera and sacred music which thus took form in the person of Telemann at once exerted its baleful influence... Kuhnau represented that the tendencies of the 'Operists' ... were destroying all feeling for true church music..."

Spitta, ibid. Appendix B VII (actually B IV, p. 303): "... [In] Memorials of Kuhnau's, addressed to the Town Council and to the University on ... March 17, 1709... [Kuhlau] appeals to ... consider certain points... 8 & 9 refer to the numbers of the choir, and 10 complains again of the increasing influence of the opera; this, he says, causes the greatest mischief, for the better students, as soon as they have acquired... sufficient practice, long to find themselves among the Operisten"</ref>

Telemann left Leipzig in 1705 at the age of 24, after receiving an invitation to become ''[[Kapellmeister]]'' for the court of Count [[Erdmann II of Promnitz]] at Sorau (now [[Żary]], [[Poland]]). His career there was cut short in early 1706 by the hostilities of the [[Great Northern War]], and after a short period of travels he entered the service of [[John William III, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach|Duke Johann Wilhelm]], in [[Eisenach]] where Johann Sebastian Bach was born.<ref name="Bergmann" /> He became ''Konzertmeister'' on 24 December 1708 and Secretary and ''Kapellmeister'' in August 1709. During his tenure at Eisenach, Telemann wrote a great deal of music: at least four annual cycles of church cantatas, dozens of sonatas and concertos, and other works. In 1709, he married Amalie Louise Juliane Eberlin, lady-in-waiting to the Countess of Promnitz and daughter of the musician [[Daniel Eberlin]].<ref name="Hirschmann" /> Their daughter was born in January 1711. The mother died soon afterwards, leaving Telemann depressed and distraught.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Romain Rolland's Essays on Music|last=Rolland|first=Romain|date=2017|publisher=Allen, Towne & Heath|isbn=978-1-4437-3093-8|page=109|language=en}}</ref>