Dr. Steven Zohn
Laura H. Carnell Professor
Departments:
Music Studies: Music History
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A.B. Music, Vassar College
M.A. Musicology, Cornell University
Ph.D. Musicology, Cornell University
Since joining the Temple faculty in 1997, Zohn has served as Provost’s Arts Fellow, Coordinator of Music History, and the Boyer College’s Director of Graduate Studies. Born in Boston, Zohn attended Vassar College and Cornell University, where his principal teachers included Edward R. Reilly, Neal Zaslaw, and James Webster.Zohn’s research interests focus on the music of Telemann and the Bach family, intersections of style and genre, print culture, music as intellectual property, reception history, source studies, and historical performance practices. His research on these topics has been published widely in journals, essay collections, and reference works, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, Eighteenth-Century Music, Bach Perspectives, the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Early Music, and The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Music. He has also edited volumes for the C.P.E. Bach and Telemann critical editions, and for the series Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era. His book Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works (Oxford University Press, 2008) is the first major published study of the composer in English since the 1970s, and received the American Bach Society’s William H. Scheide Prize.
Zohn’s research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the German Academic Exchange Service. He is past president of the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, and has served on committees for the American Musicological Society, American Bach Society, and American Handel Society. At present, he is on the editorial boards of the journal Eighteenth-Century Music and the critical edition Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke, and on the advisory board of Journal of Musicology.
As a performer on historical flutes, Zohn has appeared with numerous east-coast ensembles. From 1995 to 2004 he was founding Artistic Director of the period-instrument orchestra Publick Musick, and is currently a core member of the chamber ensemble Fioritura. His recordings of music by Bach, Boismortier, Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi may be heard on the Centaur and Newport Classic labels. Among these are a world-premiere CD of recently discovered Telemann flute duets, and the first complete recording of a set of Telemann secular cantatas with soprano Julianne Baird. His contribution to the study and performance of early music has been recognized by the American Musicological Society with its Noah Greenberg Award.
Among Zohn’s recent course offerings at the upper-level undergraduate and graduate levels are “The Life and Music of J.S. Bach,” “Historical Performance Practices, 1700–1950,” “Current Topics in Musicology and Music Theory,” “Research in Music,” and “Telemann and Music of the Enlightenment.” He also teaches a two-semester undergraduate survey spanning ancient times to the present.
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Book
Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works. Oxford and
New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Winner of the 2010 William H. Scheide
Prize of the American Bach Society.
Critical Editions
Georg Philipp Telemann: Weltliche Kantaten. Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke. Vol.
44. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2012.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Keyboard Trios II. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works.
Series 2, Vol. 3/2. Cambridge, MA: Packhard Humanities Institute, 2009.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Twelve Trios. Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era. Vol.
100. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2000.
Selected Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals and Chapters in Edited Books
“Aesthetic Mediation and Tertiary Rhetoric in Telemann’s VI Ouvertures à 4 ou 6.” In Bach
Perspectives, vol. 9: Bach and His German Contemporaries. Edited by Andrew Talle. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming.
“’Die vornehmste Hof-Tugend’: German Musicians’ Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Court
Life.” In Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities. Edited by
Samantha Owens, Barbara Reul, and Janice Stockigt. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer,
2011, 413–25.
“Telemanns Witz: Burleske, Parodie und Satire in den Ouvertüresuiten.” In Telemann, der
musikalische Maler; Telemann-Kompositionen im Notenarchiv der Sing-Akademie zu
Berlin. Bericht über die Internationale Wissenschaftliche Konferenz, Magdeburg, 10. bis
12. März 2004, anlässlich der 17. Magdeburger Telemann-Festtage. Edited by Casten
Lange and Brit Reipsch. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2010, 70–79.
“The Baroque Concerto in Theory and Practice” (review essay). Journal of Musicology 26/4
(2009): 566–94.
“Naïve Questions and Laughable Answers: An Eighteenth-Century Job Interview.” In
Coll’astuzia, col giudizio: Essays in Honor of Neal Zaslaw. Edited by Cliff Eisen. Ann Arbor, MI: Steglein, 2009, 62–92.
“The Overture-Suite, Concerto Grosso, Ripieno Concerto, and Harmoniemusik in the
Eighteenth Century.” In The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Music. Edited
by Simon Keefe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 556–82.
“Bach and the Concert en Ouverture.” In Bach Perspectives, vol. 6: J.S. Bach’s Concerted Ensemble
Music, The Ouverture. Edited by Gregory Butler. Chicago: University of Illinois Press,
2007, 137–56.
“Telemann in the Marketplace: The Composer as Self-Publisher.” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 58/2 (2005): 275–356.
“Don Juan de Austria and the Venetian Music Trade.” Early Music 33/3 (2005): 337–44 (co
authored with Michael J. Levin).
“Images of Telemann: Narratives of Reception in the Composer’s Anecdote, 1750–1830.”
Journal of Musicology 21/4 (2004): 459–86.
“The Sonate auf Concertenart and Conceptions of Genre in the Late Baroque.” Eighteenth Century
Music 1/2 (2004): 205–47.
“Bach, Telemann, and the Process of Transformative Imitation in BWV 1056/2 (156/1).”
Journal of Musicology 17/4 (1999 [published 2001]): 546–84 (with contributions from Ian Payne).
“Music Paper at the Dresden Court and the Chronology of Telemann’s Instrumental Music.” In
Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks. Essays from the International Conference on the History, Function, and Study of Watermarks, Roanoke, Virginia. Edited by Daniel W. Mosser, Michael Saffle, and Ernest W. Sullivan II. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press; London: The British Library, 2000, 125–68.
“New Light on Quantz’s Advocacy of Telemann’s Music.” Early Music 25/3 (1997): 441–61.
“When is a Quartet not a Quartet?: Relationships Between Scoring and Genre in the German
Quadro, ca. 1715–40.” In Johann Friedrich Fasch und sein Wirken für Zerbst. Bericht über
die Internationale Wissenschaftliche Konferenz am 18. und 19. April 1997 im Rahmen
der 5. Internationalen Fasch-Festtage in Zerbst. Fasch-Studien 6. Edited by Konstanze
Musketa and Barbara Reul. Dessau: Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997, 263–90.
“Arne, Handel, Walsh, and Music as Intellectual Property: Two Eighteenth-Century Lawsuits.”
Journal of the Royal Musical Association 120/1 (1995): 112–45 (co-authored with Ronald J.
Rabin).
Selected Articles in Reference Works
“Telemann, Georg Philipp.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by
Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. 2nd edition. 29 vols. London: Macmillan, 2001, 25:199–
232.
Over 400 articles on composers, performers, and writers of the seventeenth to twentieth
centuries. In The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Edited by Don Michael
Randel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Selected Reviews
“A Trove of Telemann.” Review of 13 recordings. Early Music, forthcoming.
Jürgen Neubacher, Georg Philipp Telemanns Hamburger Kirchenmusik und ihre
Aufführungsbedingungen (1721–1767): Organisationsstrukturen, Musiker, Besetzungspraktiken.
Magdeburger Telemann-Studien 20. Hildesheim: Olms, 2009. Music & Letters 92/3
(2011): 480–84.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767): Suites for Strings. B’Rock. Et’Cetera, KTC 4027, 2008.
Eighteenth-Century Music 8/2 (2011): 346–48.
“Pachelbel Outside the Canon.” Review of Wolfgang Hirschmann, ed. Johann Pachelbel: Arien.
Johann Pachelbel: Sämtliche Vokalwerke, vol. 11. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2008. Notes:
Journal of the Music Library Association 65/1 (2009): 164–66.
Cöthener Bach-Hefte 12: Beiträge vom Symposium “Suiten und Partiten im Werk Johann
Sebastian Bachs und seiner Zeitgenossen” am 8. November 2003 im Rahmen des 4.
“Köthener Herbstes.” Edited by Andreas Waczkat. Köthen: Druckhaus Köthen, 2004.
Music & Letters 88/2 (2007): 328–30.
David K. Wilson, ed. and trans. Georg Muffat on Performance Practice: The Texts from Florilegium
Primum, Florilegium Secundum, and Auserlesene Instrumentalmusik: A New Translation with
Commentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. Journal of Seventeenth–
Century Music 11/1 (2005): http://sscm-jscm.press.illinois.edu/v11/no1/zohn.html.
Brit Reipsch, ed. Georg Philipp Telemann: Miriways, TVWV 21:24. Georg Philipp Telemann:
Musikalische Werke, vol. 38. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999; and Wolfgang Hirschmann, ed.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Emma und Eginhard, oder Die Last-tragende Liebe, TVWV 21:25.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke, vol. 37. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000. Notes:
Journal of the Music Library Association 59/2 (2002): 438–42.
Christine Klein, Dokumente zur Telemann-Rezeption 1767–1907. Schriftenreihe zur
Mitteldeutschen Musikgeschichte, series II/1. Oschersleben: Ziethen, 1998. Notes:
Journal of the Music Library Association 58/1 (2001): 75–77.
Martin Ruhnke, ed. Georg Philipp Telemann: Thematisch-Systematisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke:
Telemann-Werkverzeichnis: Instrumentalwerke (= Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische
Werke, Supplement). Vol. 3. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. Notes: Journal of the Music Library
Association 57/1 (2000): 110–12.
Floyd K. Grave, ed. Ballet Music from the Mannheim Court, Part I: Christian Cannabich, Le rendes-
vous, ballet de chasse and Georg Joseph Vogler, Le rendez-vous de chasse, ou Les vendages interrompues par les chasseurs. Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, vol. 45. Madison: A-R Editions, 1996; Nichole Baker, ed. Ballet Music from the Mannheim Court, Part II: Carl Joseph Toeschi, Mars et Vénus and Christian Cannabich, Médée et Jason. RRMCE, vol. 47. Madison: A-R Editions, 1997; and Paul Cauthen, ed. Ballet Music from the Mannheim Court, Part III: Carl Joseph Toeschi, Céphale et Procris and L’Enlèvement de Proserpine. RRMCE, vol. 52. Madison: A-R Editions, 1998. Dance Research Journal 32/1 (2000): 155–58.
Joachim Jaenecke, Georg Philipp Telemann: Autographe und Abschriften: Kataloge. Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz: Kataloge der Musikabteilung, series I/vii. Munich:
Henle, 1993. Music & Letters 76/1 (1995): 96–98.
Stephen E. Hefling, Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music: Notes
Inégales and Overdotting. New York: Schirmer, 1993. Music & Letters 75/3 (1994): 444–
46.
Selected Program Annotations for Commercial Recordings
Telemann: Suites. Ensemble ZEFIRO, Alfredo Bernardini. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi,
forthcoming.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Sonatas and Sonatinas for Recorder and Basso Continuo. Heiko ter
Schegget, Zvi Meniker, Mieneke van der Velden, and Benny Aghassi. Musikproduktion
Dabringhaus und Grimm, MDG 905 1693-6 (2011).
Telemann: Early Concertos and Sonatas. Ensemble CORDIA, Stefano Veggetti. Brilliant Classics
94208 (2011).
Telemann: Twelve Fantasias and Other Works. Aldo Abreu. Bressan Recordings 0901 (2009).
Boismortier: Concertos for Five Flutes. Stephen Schulz. Dorian DSL 90803 (2008).
Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerti. Martin Haselböck and Musica Angelica. NCA 60194 (2008).
Divine Harmony: Georg Philipp Telemann: Sacred Cantatas. Patrice Djerejian, alto; Sir Philip
Ledger and the English Chamber Orchestra. MSR Classics MS 1211 (2007).
Telemann: Geistliches Singen und Spielen (Eisenach 1710–1711): Christmas Cantatas. Paul
Dombrecht and Il Fondamento. Fuga Libera FUG 520 (2006).
Georg Philipp Telemann: Double Flute Concertos. The Hanoverian Ensemble. MSR Classics MS
1113 (2005).
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Recordings
Georg Philipp Telemann: Moral Cantatas. Julianne Baird, Steven Zohn, Leon Schelhase, and
Eve Miller. Centaur Records, forthcoming.
Telemann: Flute Duets, TWV 40:141–46. Steven Zohn and Colin St. Martin. Centaur Records,
CRC 3102 (2011). World premiere recording.
Handel: Judas Maccabæus. Ama Deus Ensemble, Valentin Radu. Lyrichord LEMS-8070 (2009).
Vivaldi, Telemann, Boismortier: Concertos. Fioritura. Centaur Records CRC 2784 (2005).
Georg Philipp Telemann: Trio Sonatas. The Publick Musick. Centaur Records CRC 2592 (2002).
World premiere recordings.
C.P.E. Bach and J.S. Bach: Magnificats. The Washington Bach Consort, J. Reilly Lewis. Newport
Classic NCD 60155 (1999).
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Paper, “Morality, German Cultural Identity, and Telemann’s Faithful Music Master,” at the conference Consuming Music, Commodifying Sound, Yale University, October 5-6, 2012.
J.S. Bach, Magnificat, Bach Collegium of Philadelphia with Choral Arts, Philadelphia, December 16, 2012.
Baroque flute master classes, Amherst Early Music Winter Weekend Workshop, Rutgers University-Camden, 18-21 January 2013.
French Baroque chamber music, NYS Baroque, Ithaca, NY, March 3, 2013.
J.S. Bach, Mass in B minor, Bach Collegium of Philadelphia with Choral Arts, Philadelphia, May 5, 2013.