Musicians - Johan Helmich Roman

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Johan Helmich Roman

	Musicians - Johan Helmich Roman

Johan Helmich Roman (October 26, 1694 - November 20, 1758) was a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called "the father of Swedish music" or "the Swedish Handel."

Johan Helmich Roman spent 6 years (1715-1721) in England and there studied with Johann Christoph Pepusch and met Francesco Geminiani and the great Handel whose music he admired. Roman returned to Sweden at the age of 27 and was appointed Deputy Master and 6 years later became Chief Master at the Swedish Royal Chapel. Aside from being a composer, he was a performer. The violin and oboe were his favorite instruments.

One of Roman's best-known compositions is the Drottningholm Music, or Music for a Royal Wedding. It consists of a collection of 24 short pieces ranging in length from about 1 to 6 minutes. Roman wrote this music for the wedding in August of 1744 of the Crown Prince Adolf Frederick of Sweden and his bride Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Their wedding took place at the Palace of Drottningholm (hence, the name of the music). The festivities lasted four days. The pieces of the Drottningholm Music were apparently selected and arranged as befitted the occasion. Roman also kept eight pieces in reserve. These pieces are known as the Suite in D major, sometimes referred to as the Little Drottningholm Music, or Shorter Drottningholm Music. Both are modern terms invented by swedish conductor and musician Claude Génetay.

Other pieces written by Roman include the suite of Sjukmans Musiquen and the Italian-inspired Cantata "Piante amiche".

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Johan Helmich Roman ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Johan Helmich Roman; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay