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.
The Sessions
Instead of arranging music for ensemble, we used ‘sessions’ of live composition to find realizations of these pieces, employing a mixture of proposing ideas, different affects, and finding textures together that could enhance these ideas.
Assaggio G major BeRI 307
The extremely chordal writing for the Largo in this Assaggio presents an opportunity to redistribute the music between fortepiano and violin.
Assaggio D minor BeRI 311
This 6/8 movement yielded many different variants with characters ranging from a mysterious witch-like dance to a more vocal, cantabile lament. The latter was generated once Niels proposed a very horizontal continuo line that seemed to carry a story of the character with it.
Presentations
May 7, 2025 Oregon Bach Festival Musicking Conference, Eugene, Oregon
Lecture Concert with Anders Muskens
July 17, 2025 Birmingham Biennial, University of Birmingham
Lecture Concert with Anders Muskens