Paris quartets

The Paris quartets is a collective designation for two sets of Chamber music compositions, each consisting of six works for flute, violin, viola da gamba (or cello), and continuo, by Georg Philipp Telemann, first published in 1730 and 1738, respectively.

At Michaelmas (29 September) 1737, Telemann finally left Hamburg for a long-delayed journey to Paris, where he had been invited at least seven years earlier by four prominent French musicians: flautist Michel Blavet, violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon, gambist Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, and a cellist/harpsichordist called Prince Édouard, whose precise identity is not known.

It was in preparation for this visit (and for these four musicians) that Telemann composed the first set of six Paris quartets, which he published in Hamburg under the (Italian) title Quadri a violino, flauto traversiere, viola da gamba o violoncello, e fondamento: ripartiti in 2. concerti, 2. balletti, 2. suonate in 1730.

In anticipation of his arrival the Paris publisher Le Clerc reprinted them in 1736, as Six quatuors a violon, flute, viole ou violoncelle et basse continue.

[6] It is possible that this mixture of styles is a deliberate nod toward François Couperin, who in 1724 had published a series of chamber works under the general title le goûts réunis (prefaced by an "Essai de la réunion des Goûts François et Italien"), and two years later a set of four trio sonatas titled Les nations, in which French, Spanish, Imperial, and Piedmontese national traits are represented.

The multisectional, quasi-improvisational construction of the first quartet suggests a function as prelude to the rest of the collection, similar to the "sonades" that introduce each suite in Les nations.

[15] In the issue for Tuesday, 26 January 1740 of his weekly music magazine, Der Critische Musikus, Scheibe wrote an article explaining that quartet writing presented the composer with special challenges.

It seems clear from these remarks that Scheibe had Telemann's Paris quartets in mind, and especially when he observed, "it is generally best to use four different instruments together; above all, a transverse flute, a violin, a viola da gamba and a bass sound best together".

"[18] It seems apparent from this response as well as from his own quartets that Quantz was not so much thinking of the compositional details of Telemann's works as he was nostalgically remembering his fondness for those pieces he had studied in his youth.