Book excerpt: This book is the first guide to research on the Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) in any language. Although the scholarly 'Telemann Renaissance' is now a half-century old, there has never been a book intended to serve as a gateway for further study. Apart from a handful of biographies, dictionary entries, and annotated bibliographies (many of which are now severely out of date), students of Telemann's life and music have been left to dive into the secondary literature in order to get their bearings. Considering that this now burgeoning literature has mainly taken the form of German dissertations and conference proceedings, it is small wonder that the field of Telemann studies has been relatively slow to develop in the English-speaking world. And yet the veritable explosion of performances, both live and recorded, of the composer's music in recent decades has won him an ever-increasing following among musicians and concert-goers worldwide. As with other books in the Composer Compendia series, the book includes a brief biography, dictionary, works-list, and selective bibliography. STEVEN ZOHN is Laura Carnell Professor of Music History at Temple University.