Romanus Weichlein (1652–1706)
ENCEANIA MUSICES 1695
capella vitalis berlin
A Musical Feast, Encaenia Musices, is the name Romanus Weichlein chose for his Opus 1 collection of twelve sonatas, published in 1695. In its preface Romanus Weichlein states that he composed the pieces ‘for the ear, rather than for the eye’, and that the musicians should feel free to shorten, lengthen and rearrange them as desired.
The sonatas are in the style typically found in Austria at the time: freely composed violin and trumpet lines above an ostinato baseline emerging as a virtuosic baroque musical feast. Romanus Weichlein was born into a family of musicians in Linz, given the name Andreas Franz Weichlein. Upon entering the Monastery at Lambach he took up Romanus as his monk’s name.
The CD cover of this brilliantly performed recording by capella vitalis berlin presents the family shield of the Abbot Severin Blass, to whom the Weichlein dedicated his Canon on the Posthorn, for four violins. This canon is found today preserved in the monastery on a copperplate, and provides a light interlude and addition to the sonatas of Encaenia Musices.
