Telemann, Georg Philipp : “Das ist je gewisslich wahr”

Work attributions have a way of maintaining themselves in the collective mind for a long time. Take the cantata Das ist je gewißlich wahr, for instance, which was listed in Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf’s catalogue of musical prints and manuscripts as a work by J. S. Bach in 1761 and sent out into the world propagating this error. Up into the mid 19th century, copies of the score were made under Bach’s name, and the work was also given a BWV number (141) after it was incorporated in the Complete Edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft. Experts ultimately raised doubts about Bach’s authorship, grappled with it and finally uncovered its true composer, Georg PhilippTelemann. The evidence – contemporary copies of parts by Telemann’s copyists and a reliable printing of the Text which assigns the work to the Hamburg cantata cycle 1723 – leaves no room for doubt: this work is genuine Telemann!