An article I printed out has this to say:

"Graupner had a reputation among others for the excellent calligraphy of his original manuscripts and copies, to which he devoted the closest attention. Mattheson remarked on this in 1740: 'his handwritten scores are of such beauty that one could take them for engravings'".

Who is this Mr. Mattheson?

Article here: http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/magazine/composers/2004/02/20204.php
Quote on page 2: http://www.goldbergweb.com/en/magazine/composers/2004/02/20204_2.php

"Many people have the talent to come up with thousands of good ideas on the spot out of their free Spirit: because they are furnished with a strong power of imagination. On the other hand when the quill should be taken up, the master is not at home, since the power of thought does not go deep enough. Others set to with an incomparable will; and have not the slightest power, to carry out something extem-pore, without time for reflection. Those, who first discover their thoughts through improvisation, even of the wildest art, and gradually submit themselves to profounder things, exhibit the most fire, and are truly the best of all ..."

The aforesaid Mattheson.

http://www.amazon.de/vollkommene-Capellmeister-Faksimile-Johann-Mattheson/dp/3761801009

Oo, look! A CD-ROM with pdfs of the manuscripts of 5 Graupner overtures and a concerto. That'll keep me busy over summer...

(A huge thank-you to Dr Oswald Bill, and to Dr Sylvia Uhlemann and Susan Kleine of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt Handschriften- und Musikabteilung.)

There's certainly some lovely stuff on there... guess where I bought my copy! (Yes, HMV.)

Here are some other recommendables:



On the left, Pierre Verany PV794114; some of the sendspace files are from there and it's not too hard to find online. On the right, PV796103; only one Graupner thing on here but for chalumeau fans a must. Includes important solo pieces from Paganelli and Fasch through to Hoffmeister (a concerto from 1780, in other words well into Mozart's time).



On the left, Vox temporis CD 92 009. This is probably the hardest one here to find but it's really good. Igor Bettens and friends, again there's some stuff on sendspace. Includes some overtures for 3 chalumeaus alone and the trio for bassoon, bass chalumeau and continuo. On the right, Analekta AN29115; La Speranza on sendspace comes from the recorder overture on this.



L: I imagine a Darmstädter Clavierbuch would look a bit different nowadays. Anyone know this one? Soly is probably the only person getting Graupner's stuff recorded in a serious way at the moment, both on her own and in her ensemble series. R: ...although yes, good point, there's Rampe as well. A bit less intimate in approach and I haven't quite made up my mind about this one.



cpo 999 592-2, easy to find at www.jpc.de. This is also less intimate but it's quite good - two overtures (one with horns, one with flutes) and a cantata. (Surprisingly enough given that it's German and Baroque it's about death not being such a horrible thing.)

Now I'm completely confused.

I have a recording from the Das Kantatenwerk of Bach's "Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut" with an arduous oboe obbligato aria to set "Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen"

Now I picked up the Ensemble Musica Poetica disc from iTunes which includes both Bach and Graupner settings of this cantata text.



...except that the cantata attributed to Graupner on this new disc is identical to the one attributed to Bach on the Kantatenwerk CD.

The one attributed to Bach is clearly a shorter and less ambitious work... though not uninteresting by any means.

Is this an error attributable to iTunes or on the disc? Anybody have this CD? (P.S. don't reply by telling me what a bad service iTunes is -- I already know it's not perfect, but a convenient way to get things I'm only semi-interested in)

Save it as a BMP Windows bitmap, then edit it using Microsoft Office Picture Manager - easy to crop like that.

Nice thought, but no. In fact it's not a woodwind instrument.

(The three chalumeau lines are for what are normally called alto, tenor and bass, the upper three in this picture. That C should be a c of course. Graupner didn't write for the lowest one as far as I can find out, which was mainly used in Vienna at the beginning of the 18th century, so a bit earlier than Graupner was writing. The use of bass clef is probably because bassoonists seem to have played the chalumeau parts.)

Baritone horn, obviously.