Johan Roman

Johan Helmich Roman was a Swedish Baroque composer, often called "the father of Swedish music" and sometimes "the Swedish Handel." He was born on 26 October 1694 in Stockholm into the family of Johan Roman, a member of the Swedish royal chapel. He probably received his first musical instruction from his father and entered the royal chapel in 1711 as a violinist and oboist.

Around 1715, with permission granted by King Charles XII, Roman went abroad to continue his studies and spent about six years in London. He almost certainly studied with Johann Christoph Pepusch and came into contact with major musicians including Francesco Geminiani, Giovanni Bononcini, and especially George Frideric Handel, whose music left a lasting impression on him. He returned to Sweden in 1721 and was soon appointed deputy master of the royal chapel; in 1727 he became Chief Master of the Swedish Royal Orchestra.

During the 1720s Roman played a major organizational role in raising the standards of the royal chapel, and in 1731 he helped establish the first public concerts in Sweden. His only work published during his lifetime appeared in 1727: a set of twelve sonatas for flute, violone, and harpsichord. In 1730 he married for the first time, but his wife died in 1734.

Later in 1734 Roman traveled again through Europe, visiting Austria, England, France, Germany, and Italy. He returned to Stockholm in 1737 with a substantial collection of music by various composers for performance by the royal chapel. In 1738 he married Maria Elisabeth Baumgardt, and in 1740 he was elected to the newly established Royal Academy of Sciences.

Roman's career declined in the early 1740s. After the death of his important patron Queen Ulrika Eleonora in 1741, his position weakened, and in 1742 his activity was seriously affected by health problems. In 1744 he composed one of his finest and best-known works, Drottningholmsmusique, an orchestral suite written for the wedding of Crown Prince Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia at Drottningholm Palace. That same year his second wife died, leaving him with five children.

In 1745 Roman retired from his post as leader of the royal chapel because of rapidly progressing deafness. He settled at the estate Lilla Haraldsmåla in the parish of Ryssby near Kalmar in southeastern Sweden. Except for a visit to Stockholm in 1751–1752 to direct funeral and coronation music for Adolf Frederick's accession, his final years were devoted to translating European theoretical treatises into Swedish and adapting sacred texts into Swedish. He died at Haraldsmåla on 20 November 1758.

Roman's reputation endured after his death, and his achievements were formally commemorated by the Royal Academy of Sciences only nine years later. His output includes Drottningholmsmusique, the Suite in D major known as the Little or Shorter Drottningholm Music, the suite Sjukmans Musiquen, and the Italian-influenced cantata Piante amiche. Surviving manuscripts also preserve a Mass, motets, more than 80 psalms, 21 symphonies, 6 overtures, more than 20 violin sonatas, 12 harpsichord sonatas, and various other works.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.