Johann Georg Röllig (or Johann George Roellig as his autograph signature indicates)(1710–1790),[1] brother of composer Johann Christian Roellig (b.1716), was a German composer, organist and Kapellmeister at the Court of Anhalt-Zerbst.[2] From the age of 17, Roellig was a student at the Dresden Kreuzschule.[3] According to his autobiography, J.G. Roellig studied composition, with court composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), lessons paid for by Count von Brühl, the Saxon Prime Minister, indicating that the young composer had come to attention of one of the most important figures at the Dresden court. In 1736, he matriculated at the University of Leipzig to study theology.[4] In 1737, Prince Johann August of Anhalt-Zerbst heard Roellig perform and appointed him Court Organist and Court Musician.[5] On the death of court Kapellmeister, Johann Friedrich Fasch, in 1758, Roellig (along with the court Konzertmeister, Carl Hoeckh) assumed some of his duties, particularly in continuing to supply the court with cantatas.[6] Following Hoeckh's death in 1773, Röllig was finally appointed Kapellmeister in 1774.[7]

Works

As is common with many composers of the period, little of what was once a large corpus of sacred music composed by J.G. Roellig has survived, so that a full assessment of his music is difficult. J.G. Roellig, the quintessential example of a musician in courtly service, performed and composed music principally for use in the Schloßkirche. A prolific composer of church cantatas and other sacred music, Roellig produced at least four Passions, and one full cycle of cantatas, and contributed to other cycles performed in the Zerbst Schloßkirche. Other duties included writing annual birthday cantatas and serenatas for the extended princely family from 1758. The St Mark Passion (1750) and later vocal works, such as the coronation music for Gustav III of Sweden (1772) and the only published work, the motet Lobe den Herrn (1785), indicate a style that is very similar to that adopted by his almost exact contemporaries Gottfried August Homilius (1714-1785) and Johann Friedrich Doles (1715-1797). As a church composer J.G. Roellig generally upheld a more ‘learned’ style across his extant output. Almost to the death of Mozart, Roellig adhered consistently to styles and structures that would be recognised by J.S. Bach’s generation. Works such as the St. Mark's Passion „Gehet heraus und schauet an, ihr Tochter Zion" (1750), previously attributed to C. P. E. Bach, indicate the quality of his writing.[8][9] His other notable output includes special cantatas and serenatas for the birthdays of rulers of Anhalt-Zerbst, including Catherine the Great, daughter of Prince Christian August. In 2019, the local newspaper, the Volksstimme reported that a volume had been bought for the Francisceum Library in Zerbst which contained the texts of several unknown works by Fasch and Roellig. Significant surviving works include Roellig's cantata to mark the death of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden in 1771 ("Sei getreu bis in den Tod") and a cantata ("Euer Herz soll sich freuen") and Missa brevis to mark the coronation of his successor Gustav III. The latter was published in an edition by Nigel Springthorpe by Prima la musica in 2020.

References

  1. ↑ Nigel Springthorpe The lives and Works of Johann George Roellig and Johann Christian Roellig - with Thematic Catalogue, PhD (London, 2020)
  2. ↑ See Nigel Springthorpe The lives and Works of Johann George Roellig and Johann Christian Roellig - with Thematic Catalogue, PhD (London, 2020) for the most extensive biographical information on the composer. George J Buelow The Late Baroque Era: Vol 4. From The 1680s To 1740 1349113034- 2016 Page 235 "Other musicians who worked at Zerbst were the violinist and horn player Carl Höckh (1707–72) and the organist Johann Georg Roellig (1710–90), who was later Kapellmeister; for two years Roellig taught the harpsichord to Princess Sophie" (later Catherine the Great)
  3. ↑ Die Matrikel der Kreuzschule Gymnasium zum Heiligen Kreuz in Dresden, Zweiter Teil 1713-1801/2.
  4. ↑ Die jängeren Matrikel der Universität Leipzig (1559-1809), vol. 3 (1909)).
  5. ↑ Rölligs Kantate für St. Jakobs-Tag", in Zerbster Jahrbuch 4 (1908).
  6. ↑ Nigel Springthorpe "Roellig in charge": A reassessment of the cantata repertoire performed in the Zerbst Schlosskirche between 1749 and 1765, in "Fasch und die Konfessionen", Fasch-Studien 14, ortus 2017, 225-252. ISBN 978-3-937788-58-6.
  7. ↑ Springthorpe, op. cit.
  8. ↑ Nigel Springthorpe established Roellig's authorship of „Gehet heraus und schauet an, ihr Tochter Zion", his only fully surviving Passion work, in Passion Composition and composers of Passion Music at the Court of Anhalt Zerbst, PhD (Surrey, 1997) and The Zerbst Passion Tradition in Johann Friedrich Fasch und sein Wirken fuer Zerbst, ed. Internationale Fasch-gesellschaft, Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft, (Dessau, 1997). The work is catalogued in Johann George Röllig in New Grove 2000 and Johann George Roellig in Grove-Online 2007 (both articles by Springthorpe) and in Springthorpe The lives and Works of Johann George Roellig and Johann Christian Roellig - with Thematic Catalogue, PhD (London, 2020). Previous commentators on ntye St Mark Passion include: Doris Powers C.P.E. Bach: A Guide to Research 2013 1136799478 p.217 "Georg Friedrich Handel: Ein Lebensinhalt-Gedenkschrift fiir Bernd Baselt (1934-1993), ed. Klaus Hortschansky and Konstanze Musketa, 455-64. Halle: HandelHaus, 1995; Kassel: Barenreiter, 1995. 551 p. ISBN 3-910019-09-9, who argues that the most likely composer of the St. Mark's Passion (H. 863), attributed to C. P. E. Bach by G. Quarg, is not Bach but J. G. Roellig. (Note: Composition is listed in Helm, Thematic Catalogue as a spurious composition.)" "H.863 Passion to St. Mark (Attributed more likely to J. G. Rollig) 692-93."
  9. ↑ Herbert Lölkes -Ramlers "Der Tod Jesu" in den Vertonungen von Graun und ... 1999 Page 57 "Als Autor der durch einen Zerbster Textdruck bereits für 1750 belegten Passion H 863 (Eingangsarie: „Gehet heraus und schauet an, ihr Tochter Zion") kommt Johann Georg Rolling in Betracht. Compare Hans-Joachim Schulze.
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