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The year 1733 saw the appearance in print from Hamburg of Georg Philipp Telemann's (1681-1767) famous Musique de Table or Banquet Music. Nowadays, most people have long forgotten that in the Baroque Era, people of means had musicians at their disposal to play for any occasion, and daily meals were no exception. In our day, we operate differently: pop several CD's into the player, turn on the amplifier, and suddenly Ella Fitzgerald is serenading us at dinner to the music of Duke Ellington!

Telemann supplied a great deal of repertory in his Musique de Table. In fact, there are three productions, each containing an ouverture coupled with a partita of several dances, a quartet, a concerto, a trio sonata, and a solo sonata, all capped off by concluding music. The entirety of this music can be found in full score in volumes 61 and 62 of Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst.

The present work before us is one of the three trio sonatas.  The first two movements derive from the sonata da chiesa, but the final two, both being minuets, are more akin to the partita. To be sure, this was the direction that the sonata da chiesa was taking with most composers in the Baroque Era.

Some of the details in this work are worth noting, not the least is the key of E Major presented in the slow movement. Easy on the transverse flute of the time, it is a killer key on the Baroque oboe and bassoon.  Also, throughout this trio, Telemann presents a plethora of trills, not as simple cadential formulas, but as integral thematic material. In addition, dynamics and articulation are meticulously supplied by the composer. The bass line, though, remains as in Bach example, simply as a mere support for the upper voices, occasionally supplying thematic material. Although cello is specified by the composer for the continuo group, bassoon is just as suitable.