Page "Georg Philipp Telemann" Paragraph 17

In Hamburg Telemann started publishing his literary works: poems, texts for vocal music, sonnets, poems on the deaths of friends and colleagues.

From 1725 he actively published his music as well, engraving and advertising the editions himself.

More than 40 volumes of music appeared between 1725 and 1740 and these were widely distributed across Europe, owing to Telemann's numerous contacts in various countries.

All this publishing activity, however, was in part driven by the need for money.

Telemann's wife Maria Catherina amassed a very large gambling debt, 4400 Reichsthaler, which amounted to more than Telemann's annual income.

The marriage was already in trouble by the early 1720s, as Maria Catherina was publicly rumored to be having an affair with a Swedish military officer.

Telemann's friends in Hamburg organized a collection to save the composer's finances, and eventually he was saved from bankruptcy ; by 1736 Maria had left Telemann's home.

She outlived her husband by some eight years and died in 1775 at a convent in Frankfurt.