Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)
In 1728, the Russian Ambassador in Stockholm, Count Nikolai Fiodorovitz Golovin, commissioned Johan Helmich Roman, the Swedish Master of the Kings’ Music, to write music for the crowning of the new Tsar, Peter II. The music for the festivities included forty-five orchestral pieces in a variety of instrumentations. This music is representative of many of the popular styles of music in Europe at the time; however, there is no indication that these pieces should be thought of as a cycle or played in any particular order. In the original manuscript, only the first three movements had four complete parts. The subsequent movements only had two or three. In the remaining trios, a fourth part was added based upon the characteristics of other Roman orchestral compositions by violinist Lars Frydén. Similarly, the titles, (tempo indications), which were absent in the original, were added by editors Ingmar Bengtsson and Lars Frydén.
Most of these arrangements have been transposed to different keys to facilitate the range of the guitar. Similarly, in a number of movements a few bass notes were transposed up an octave. It should be noted that in many movements the second part sometimes crosses the first. In such cases, directors may choose to edit those parts.
These arrangements are made from the Golovin Music by Johan Helmich Roman published by the Swedish Society of Musicology with support of the Swedish Royal Music Academy and Editions Reimers AB with Ingmar Benstsson and Lars Frydén as editors.
Copyright © 1992 by Editions Reimers AB, Stockholm and Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien, Stockholm.
These works are presented here with the kind permission of Editions Reimers AB.
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