Georg Michael Telemann (20 April 1748 – 4 March 1831) was a German composer and

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. Telemann was born in

Plön Plön (; Holsatian: ''Plöön'') is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on ...

, the son of the local pastor Andreas Telemann (1715–1755) and his wife Augusta Clara Catharina Capsius. After the death of his father in 1755, he moved to Hamburg, where he was taken in and raised by his then 74-year-old grandfather

Georg Philipp Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesh ...

. In Hamburg, he attended the

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a Gymnasium (or Grammar School ) in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The school's f ...

, and from 1770, the Akademisches Gymnasium. On the death of his grandfather in 1767, the 19 year old Georg Michael composed ''Trauer-Ode auf das betrübte Absterben meines Großvaters Herrn Georg Philipp Telemann, des Hamburgischen Musik-Chor-Direktors''. He also filled his grandfather's post as

Cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

at the Johanneum and director of music in Hamburg's churches until March 1768, when

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

was appointed. From 1770 to 1772 he studied at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

. In 1773, while still in Hamburg, he published a treatise on continuo playing, ''Unterricht im Generalbaß-Spielen''. In 1773, Georg Michael moved to

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, where he was appointed as music director of the city churches and cantor at

Riga Cathedral Riga Cathedral ( lv, Rīgas Doms; german: Dom zu Riga) formally The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, is the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral in Riga, Latvia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Riga. The cathedral is one of the most recognizable l ...

. As part of this job, he also directed the performance of twenty-one of his grandfather's

passions ''Passions'' is an American television soap opera that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1999, to September 7, 2007, and on DirecTV's The 101 Network from September 17, 2007, to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and pro ...

. He also taught at the cathedral school. In 1812, he published a collection of Chorale settings for organ entitled ''Sammlung alter und neuer Choral-Melodien'' and a year later took the position of organist at the cathedral. He retired in 1828 due to a deteriorating eye condition. He died in Riga in 1831.

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1748 births 1831 deaths German classical composers German music theorists People from Plön (district) German male classical composers 18th-century classical composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians 19th-century German male musicians Georg Philipp Telemann {{Germany-musicologist-stub