If the music of C.P.E. Bach kept me busy for quite a while, that of Per Brant (1714 - 1767) will not take any time at all. Even then, much of the writing about Per Brant deals with his predecessor and teacher Johan Helmich Roman (1694 - 1758), the "Father of Swedish Music" whose works Brant skilfully copied and preserved. Probably as a result of these efforts, some of Roman's works have been attributed to Per Brant himself.
Per Brant was a Swedish violinist, composer and poet, active in Stockholm, employed at the royal chapel from 1735, eventually becoming its Chief Court Kapellmeister in 1758.
Music during this time evolved very fast, and Roman absorbed many different styles, as manifested in his symphonies: (1)
- The new Swedish crown princess Lovisa Ulrika's was from Berlin where the 'sensitive' music of the Empfindsamkeit held sway.
- As a youth he had studied contrapuntal Fortspinnung of the early Baroque in Britain.
- The lyrical, instrumental style of Mannheim composers such as Johann Stamitz was popular.
Roman and Brant organized public concert series where amateurs played next to professional musicians. After a while though this effort became more difficult. Per Brant writes in a letter that he had gone into serious debt to preserve Roman's concert series since foreign works were becoming more and more popular.
This may have come about with the arrival of the new crown prince and the prince's own, competing band which included more instruments, e.g. horns, and became the primary band. Roman left disappointed and handed the court chapel over to Brant. Roman did return to the Hovkapell periodically, and documents of the period show improvement each time the older musician retook the helm.
Brant inherited plans for a musical seminary from Roman, but the Royal Swedish Music Academy was only established in 1771 after Roman's and Brant's death.
According to the musicologist Ingmar Bengtsson 18 works have been attributed to Brant including the two symphonies featured below. However, only one song, published in 1768, is Brant's beyond a doubt. (2) Let's take a listen to these works as eighteenth-century, likely Swedish Symphonies, maybe Brant's, maybe Roman's or even of someone else.
Sinfonia in D-minor, first in a polished recording, then performed live by an ensemble of mandolins.
I. Allegro non molto from the Symphony in D minor for for two violins, viola, and cello, in a live performance with the first violin part played on bandoneon.
We have thus briefly met a Swedish court musician, skilled copyist, active in his country's musical life both public and at the court, whose skills as a composer and as Court Kapellmeister remain unclear.
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(1) Bertil van Boer, "Toward a Stylistic Chronology of Johan Helmich Roman's Symphonies." University of California Press, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 471-500.
(2) Ingmar Bengtsson, "Brant, Per." Biographical entry, Oxford, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford University Press, 1980.
Per Brant was a Swedish violinist, composer and poet, active in Stockholm, employed at the royal chapel from 1735, eventually becoming its Chief Court Kapellmeister in 1758.
Music during this time evolved very fast, and Roman absorbed many different styles, as manifested in his symphonies: (1)
- The new Swedish crown princess Lovisa Ulrika's was from Berlin where the 'sensitive' music of the Empfindsamkeit held sway.
- As a youth he had studied contrapuntal Fortspinnung of the early Baroque in Britain.
- The lyrical, instrumental style of Mannheim composers such as Johann Stamitz was popular.
Roman and Brant organized public concert series where amateurs played next to professional musicians. After a while though this effort became more difficult. Per Brant writes in a letter that he had gone into serious debt to preserve Roman's concert series since foreign works were becoming more and more popular.
This may have come about with the arrival of the new crown prince and the prince's own, competing band which included more instruments, e.g. horns, and became the primary band. Roman left disappointed and handed the court chapel over to Brant. Roman did return to the Hovkapell periodically, and documents of the period show improvement each time the older musician retook the helm.
Brant inherited plans for a musical seminary from Roman, but the Royal Swedish Music Academy was only established in 1771 after Roman's and Brant's death.
According to the musicologist Ingmar Bengtsson 18 works have been attributed to Brant including the two symphonies featured below. However, only one song, published in 1768, is Brant's beyond a doubt. (2) Let's take a listen to these works as eighteenth-century, likely Swedish Symphonies, maybe Brant's, maybe Roman's or even of someone else.
Sinfonia in D-minor, first in a polished recording, then performed live by an ensemble of mandolins.
I. Allegro non molto from the Symphony in D minor for for two violins, viola, and cello, in a live performance with the first violin part played on bandoneon.
We have thus briefly met a Swedish court musician, skilled copyist, active in his country's musical life both public and at the court, whose skills as a composer and as Court Kapellmeister remain unclear.
____________________________________________________________
(1) Bertil van Boer, "Toward a Stylistic Chronology of Johan Helmich Roman's Symphonies." University of California Press, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 471-500.
(2) Ingmar Bengtsson, "Brant, Per." Biographical entry, Oxford, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford University Press, 1980.