Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/121

Rh considerable number of sonatas (with from two to nine parts), trios, serenades, and cantatas with Italian or German words, in which he gave a great deal of importance to the accompanying music. Above all he valued his religious music.

It was at Eisenach, where Johann Bernhard Bach was organist, that Telemann entered into relations with Johann Sebastian Bach, and in 1714 he was godfather to one of his sons, Philipp Emmanuel. He was also on friendly terms with the pastor-poet Neumeister, protagonist of the religious cantata in operatic style, and one of J. S. Bach's favourite librettists.—Eventually that happened at Eisenach which profoundly influenced his character. He lost, early in 1711, his young wife, whom he had married at Sorau, at the end of 1709. He has related the story of these events in a long poem entitled: "Poetic Thoughts, by which her desolate husband, Georg Philipp Telemann, seeks to honour the ashes of his wife, Louisa, whom he loved with all his heart, 1711."

This poem, although much too diffuse and somewhat indiscreetly sentimental, is full of a tender emotion that is like a strain of beautiful music.

"Thus I have seen thee dead, my well-beloved! Can it be that I still draw breath?"

He tells us how they met, how he had loved her:

"We met first in a foreign land. I was not thinking of her; she knew nothing of me… I