Early last year, while poking around on IMSLP, I ran across the Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch, a collection of some four hundred hymn tunes with settings by Telemann. In late June, I had the notion of going through it tune by tune, but then I dismissed this idea, mostly because of technical limitations. The listing on IMSLP notes that the book "includes instructions at the end on how to sing and play these chorales in 4-part harmony," but despite over a decade of studying German and perhaps because of a relative lack of formal musical education, these instructions are beyond my comprehension. Most, if not all, of the tunes include figured bass, and while I understand the rudiments of this, I don't know how to play it.
A couple months ago, I realized that it's Telemann's 340th birthday this year, and I went back to look at the Lieder-Buch. I'd noticed before that the first tune in the collection is "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland," which has significance for me. In late November 2012, I heard an organist practicing that tune while I was walking down the hall at university. I was frustrated that I didn't know how to read music, so starting with "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland," I went through a hymn tune every week and re-taught myself. Aside from an eleven-month break (most of 2015) and a one-month hiatus (June 2019), I've recorded a hymn tune (using various stringed instruments) every week for eight years.
So because it's Telemann's 340th birthday and because the Lieder-Buch starts with "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland," I decided to go through it anyway, if only to satisfy my personal interest. A formally trained musician would almost certainly do a better job of it.
I find the notation in the Lieder-Buch difficult to read, partially because it's very cramped but also because the melodies are written in soprano clef (which is apparently obsolete). My first step for each tune will be to transcribe and transpose it. Telemann's handwriting is often illegible, so I'll probably have to work backwards from what's called the "Register" (it's not exactly an index) in order to identify the titles. This could prove troublesome, however, since the "Register" sometimes lists the same tune for multiple titles (for example, the first column lists tune No. 3 for both "Ach Gott, ach Gott, ach hast du" and "Ach Gott, erhör mein Seufzen und").
For many of the tunes, Telemann also gives what seem to be a few alternate notes or passages, and I'm going to play through each tune twice in order to accommodate those differences. I'm going to attempt playing the tunes on organ (the organ sound on my keyboard, at least), but I may resort to different instruments, depending on the difficulty of the piece and my own skill (or lack thereof). I'll combine my recording with a modern rendering of the notation (melody and bass only) and post it as a video. I aim to do this weekly (posting on Thursdays), but I'll see how it goes.
