Woodwind Ensemble,Woodwind Quartet Bassoon,Clarinet,Flute,Oboe - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.811817

Composed by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767). Arranged by Pat Spence. Baroque,Concert,Contemporary,Graduation,Standards. 56 pages. Piper Publications #6518927. Published by Piper Publications (A0.811817).

The Overture Suite was a form and style of music popular in the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. The early suites consisted of sets of the popular dance movements at the time and would have been used to accompany dancing. The overture was a later addition - probably for more formal  occasions - and enabled the composer to show off his skill before the dancing began. Telemann developed the form over the first half of the 18th century composing suites for a wide variety of instrumental combinations from groups of wind instruments for outside events, solo instruments with string orchestra, to string quartet, which was the original version of Overture Burlesque and one of the first string quartets.

Instead of the usual dance titles, Telemann used characters associated with Scaramouche, a stock clown character - Harlequin the Joker, Columbine, Pierrot, Mezzetin en turc, the Narcissus of pantomime - and a pair of Menuets.  The suite would have been staged and the music played robustly to suit the characters as they danced. Players of intermediate standard and above will have fun playing this.

The suite is arranged for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon to play as a concert piece or as an accompaniment to a stage performance.

The tempo indications are suggestions in parentheses ( ) as are the additional dynamic markings. Some additional cadential trills have been added without comment. All added slurs are shown with dashed lines with the exception of those in Menuet 2 which I feel are necessary because of the change from string to wind instruments. You are, of course, free to disagree.