Georg Philipp Telemann - From: 12 Fantasias (1733) {Frans Brüggen}

Georg Philipp Telemann (24 March [O.S. 14 March] 1681 – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the five main churches.

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12 Fantasias for Solo Flute, TWV 40:2–13 (c. 1733)

1. Fantasia #1 in A major (0:00)
2. Fantasia #3 in B minor (4:08)
3. Fantasia #7 in D major (8:00)
4. Fantasia #8 in E minor (12:55)
5. Fantasia #10 in F-sharp minor (17:35)
6. Fantasia #11 in G major (22:43)

Frans Brüggen, alto recorder
Watch Fantasia #3 live performance here:    • Telemann - fantasie nr. 3 (Brüggen)  

Telemann's 12 fantaisies à traversière sans basse, 12 Fantasias for Solo Flute, TWV 40:2–13, were published in Hamburg in 1732–33. An extant copy of the publication, conserved in Brussels, has a spurious title page reading Fantasie per il Violino senza Basso (Fantasias for Solo Violin). The set is one of Telemann's collections of fantasias for unaccompanied instruments, the others being a set of thirty-six for harpsichord [scores], also published in 1732–33, and two sets published in 1735: twelve for solo violin and twelve for viola da gamba.

Telemann's solo flute fantasias are alone in the Baroque repertoire to include movements seemingly impossible on flute: fugues (fantasias 2, 6, and 8–11), a French overture (fantasia 7) and a passacaglia (fantasia 5). In 2012, an arrangement for viola solo was published by Euprint. In this arrangement, through the use of double stops, some many-voiced parts appear as real polyphonic pieces.

The collection is arranged by key, progressing more or less stepwise from A major to G minor. Telemann deliberately avoided keys that are impractical on the one-key flute, i.e. B major, C minor, F minor and F-sharp major. There are two ways to view the overall structure of the collection: one way, in which the work is divided into two parts, is suggested by the fact that Fantasia 7 begins with a French overture, indicating a start of a new section. This device was also later used by Johann Sebastian Bach in Variation 16 of his Goldberg Variations. Another was proposed by scholar Wolfgang Hirschmann: there are four modal groups of three fantasias: major-minor-minor, major-major-minor, major-minor-major, and minor-major-minor.