Catalyst for Creation:

Realizing the world of Roman’s Assaggi

The Assaggi for solo violin by the Swedish violinist and composer Johan Helmich Roman (1694–1758) are a curious collection of works: wondrously diverse, stylistically forward-looking for the 1730s, and yet they project an aura of being somewhat incomplete, almost as if they serve as a placeholder, a memory of larger, grander compositions. This project employs the Assaggi as a catalyst for creating possible sonic landscapes of this time. By exploring the repertoire through a series of live collaboration sessions between baroque violin and keyboard, composing the keyboard music live through a process of musical dialogue, and experimentation with the mixing of instruments (ie cembalo, fortepiano), we attempt to push the contrasting emotions of Empfindsamkeit composition style to a level greater than that attainable with only the solo violin.