Musicology Annotation << Back An Unknown Passion Oratorio by G. Ph. Telemann: a Discovery of its Libretto in St. Petersburg Tatiana V. Shabalina The article is devoted to research of an original printed libretto of an unknown passion oratorio by G. Ph. Telemann «Jesus, als die untergehende Sonne» found at the National Library of Russia. A study of all the details of its print, a style of its design and peculiarities of the text gives evidence that the piece was performed on March 21, 1731, supposedly in Breslau at St. Bernhardin Church. It is demonstrated that on one hand, the discovered source reveals a new fact of Telemann’s biography (a performance of his passion oratorio on Holy Wednesday 1731 in Silesia), on the other hand, it completely corresponds to circumstances of his activity in Hamburg in those years and wide popularity of his works in Breslau. Besides, one more large-scale piece is added to our knowledge, because it has been considered before that Telemann wrote six oratorios of this kind. Analysis of the content and poetical language of the newly found source, as well as comparison with other similar works allows to make a conclusion about its originality and high artistic merits. Finally it is underlined that the discovery contributes to the world science on the German musical culture of the 18th century. Keywords: G. Ph. Telemann, passion oratorio, libretto, source, National Library of Russia. Contacts: E-mail: jsb3@yandex.ru Pp. 25-34.