Levande Musikarv/Swedish Musical Heritage

This post is by Jim Cowdery and originally appeared on RILM's blog, Bibliolore. It is reprinted here with kind permission.

Levande Musikarv/Swedish Musical Heritage is an open-access Internet database of Swedish composers born at least 100 years ago, including biographies, work lists (with facsimiles of works no longer covered by copyright), bibliographies, and links to related material.

There is a hidden treasure trove of significant Swedish art music from the 1600s to the present; unfortunately, for various reasons many have been forgotten. Much of this music is only available in hard-to read-manuscripts, often in poor condition, with decaying paper, fading ink, and so on.

One of the other goals of the project is to produce critical editions of Swedish art music, helping it to become a vital part of our modern concert repertoire. There are great discoveries to make, not least among the works of women composers.

The database will eventually be bilingual in Swedish and English, in an effort to promote Swedish music abroad.

Below, the Drottningholms Barockensemble performs the sinfonia for flutes and strings in E minor, no. 22, by Johan Helmich Roman (1694–1758).