Georg Philipp Telemann: 6 Kanonische Sonaten für zwei Viole da gamba (oder andere Bassinstrumente)

The original title bears further: ... a Flutes traverses, ou Violons, ou Basses de Viol

Telemann had previously composed music playable on various different instrumental groupings but whereas in “Der getreue Music-Meister” of 1728 he gives instructions for transposition here there are no such instructions. Since it was not uncommon practice to play violin sonatas on the viola da gamba an octave lower as can be seen in the contemporary transcriptions of the Opus V sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli, our original intention was to adopt this model but we were not satisfied with the resulting sound because it failed to use the range of the Viola da Gamba to the best effect. We then tried a transposition two octaves down which was also unconvincing.

We therefore chose an intermediary solution by transposing down one octave and a fourth or fifth depending on the original key of the given sonata. In this way these inventive canons sound wonderful and self evidently natural on two bass gambas.

Edited by Julia Theis