Rostock music collection catalogued in RISM

Amrei Flechsig

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

In December 2020, the cataloguing of the music collection of the Rostock University Library in RISM began – exactly five years later, in December 2025, it was completed. The cataloguing was carried out in three work packages at the RISM office in Dresden. The core of the Rostock music collection, with over a thousand signatures, consists of the collections of Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg-Stuttgart and his daughter Louise Friederike, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Based on the catalogue published by Ekkehard Krüger in 2006, some new findings have now been incorporated into the cataloguing.

The last batch mainly contained a number of anonymous works, several of which could be newly attributed. For example, 190 dances and airs in the anthology D-ROu Mus. Saec. XVIII-67.2(1-2) could largely be attributed to various stage works by Jean-Baptiste Lully. This volume probably dates back to the estate of Crown Prince Friedrich Ludwig, whose collection had a clear French focus due to the former orientation of the Württemberg court towards “French taste” and also due to a stay in Paris in 1715 during his grand tour.

His daughter Louise Friederike, on the other hand, was influenced by the fashions of the time and oriented herself towards Italian tastes, as can be clearly seen in her music collection. However, French music was not entirely excluded from her collection: for example, 19 airs and duets in the collection D-ROu Mus. Saec. XVIII-72.19 were identified as excerpts from French parodies, most of which originated from the circle of the “Théâtre de M. Favart”.

The third delivery also contained manuscripts from the 19th century, which were catalogued in autumn 2025. These included sources from the Rostock Singakademie, as well as a collection of sheet music from the estate of Ferdinand von Roda and individual manuscripts from Rostock bourgeois families.

Ferdinand von Roda was a university music teacher in Rostock and director of the Rostock Singakademie from 1857 until his death in 1876. He made numerous arrangements for performances by the Singakademie, for example of J. S. Bach’s St John Passion (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XVIII-4/5.1a-18) and selected cantata movements (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XVIII-4/1(2).1-29). However, some of his own compositions have also been preserved, such as a Passion oratorio (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-72(1).1-34) and a funeral cantata (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-74.1, Mus. Saec. XIX-74.2a-d) from his time in Rostock, and several piano works, some of which date from his years in Brunswick and Hamburg (including D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-74.4a and Mus. Saec. XIX-74.6).

Of particular interest is a small collection of music manuscripts relating to the Eggers family of Rostock. Dedications mention the brothers Karl and Friedrich Eggers, who became known as art theorists, as well as several of their relatives. Karl Eggers was also a composer himself, and a volume of eight Low German songs set to music from Klaus Groth’s ‘Quickborn’ (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-100) is in the collection. His younger brother Gustav Eggers was even a professional musician and composer, several of whose songs are included in an anthology (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-126); in addition, his last work, the instrumental composition ‘James Monmouth’, which he composed shortly before his early death (New Year 1860/61), has also been preserved (D-ROu Mus. Saec. XIX-102). The elaborately designed volume is accompanied by an additional title page with an artistic colourful thematic design, possibly by the well-known Hamburg artist Otto Speckter.

Thanks to cataloguing in RISM, these holdings can now be searched and browsed in the RISM Catalogue under the University Library’s siglum, D-ROu.

Literature:

Ekkehard Krüger: Die Musikaliensammlungen des Erbprinzen Friedrich Ludwig von Württemberg-Stuttgart und der Herzogin Luise Friederike von Mecklenburg-Schwerin in der Universitätsbibliothek Rostock, Beeskow 2006

Illustrations:

Mus.Saec.XVIII-74-1, bookplate of Louise Friederike of Mecklenburg (Mecklenburg-Württemberg alliance coat of arms)

Mus.Saec.XVIII-74-1, title of an anthology from the collection of Louise Friederike von Mecklenburg

Mus. Saec. XIX-102, title page for „James Monmouth“ by Gustav Eggers, possibly designed by Otto Speckter

Category: Library collections