Georg Philip Telemann is among the most prolific and most famous composers of his generation. He was born in 1681 at Magdeburg; he was self-taught as a composer as well as an organist. He was educated in law at the University of Leipzig, where he founded the University Collegium Musicum and was the city council's preferred candidate for the position of Thomascantor in 1723, which he declined and to which Bach was eventually appointed. Telemann had established himself in Hamburg in 1721 as Cantor of the Johanneum and director of music for the five principal city churches. He remained in Hamburg until his death in 1767, when he was succeeded by his godson, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach. In his long career Telemann wrote a great deal of music of all kinds in a style that extends the late Baroque into the age of Haydn.