Johann Theodor Römhild (1684-1756)
- Feria 3 Paschat: | Jesu schenk uns deinen Frieden | Hautbois 2 |
Viol. 2 | Viola | Sopran: | Alto | Tenor. | Basso | con | Continuo
Performers: Heike Hеilmann (soprano); Ewa Zеunеr (alto); Virgil
Hartingеr (tenor); Marek Rzеpka (bass);
Goldbеrg Baroque Ensemble;
Andrzej Mikolаj Szаdеjko (conductor & organ)
Further info: Johann Theodor Römhild (1684-1756) - Cantata "Kommt, ihr Herzen, kommt ihr Lippen" (1727)
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German organist and composer. His earliest musical education was
probably received from his father, Johann Elias Römhild, a substitute
minister who moved his family to nearby Steinbach three years after his
son’s birth. According to Ernst Ludwig Gerber, he also studied with
Johann Jacob Bach in the neighbouring town of Ruhla when the latter
arrived there in 1694. In 1697 he became a student at the Leipzig
Thomasschule, where his distinguished teachers were Johann Schelle and
Johann Kuhnau, and his fellow students included Christoph Graupner,
Johann Friedrich Fasch and David Heinichen. He became a university
student in Leipzig in 1705, remaining six terms before accepting in 1708
his first musical position as Kantor of the school in Spremberg. In
1714 he was also named rector and Kapelldirector. In 1715 he went to
Freystadt as music director and Kantor of the newly constructed parish
church, but he returned to Spremberg in 1726 as court Kapellmeister to
Duke Heinrich. When the latter became Duke of Saxe-Merseburg he took
Römhild to Merseburg as his court Kapellmeister. In 1735 he became
organist of Merseburg Cathedral and began a period of great
compositional activity, writing more than 200 sacred cantatas and a St
Matthew Passion. He was a major composer of sacred music in the north
German Baroque, but the survival of many of his manuscripts, found
before World War II in libraries and church archives in north-east
Europe, is uncertain. As Paulke showed in his description of a portion
of Römhild’s manuscripts discovered in the early 20th century, the
church cantatas, numbering over 250 and including some 50 solo cantatas,
were written in a variety of forms and instrumental combinations
characteristic of the late Baroque and illustrating almost every formal
and stylistic type.
