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.

Meet the Team

  • Andrew Wong

    BAROQUE VIOLIN

  • Anders Muskens

    HARPSICHORD, FORTEPIANO

  • Niels Pfeffer

    BAROQUE LUTE

The Sessions

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.

with Anders Muskens, fortepiano

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.

with Niels Pfeffer, baroque lute

Instead of arranging music for ensemble, we used ‘live composition sessions’ to find multiple realizations of these assaggi. This process allowed us to propose different characters and affects to each other in real-time, and allowed to us to experiment with different rhythmic textures and countermelodies to amplify these affects.

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