Music at Court and University During Sweden’s Age of Liberty (1718-1772): a digitization and database project
This project aims to digitize manuscript music from Sweden’s Age of Liberty (1718–72) and create a research database containing detailed information needed for future research on the material. The manuscripts are held by the university libraries in Uppsala and Lund, and by the Music and Theatre Library, Stockholm.
This material derives from the musical activities at the royal court and at Uppsala University. These closely related institutions housed Sweden’s leading ensembles. The material can therefore contribute new knowledge about under researched Swedish music from the Age of Liberty, not least music performed by hofkapellmeister Johan Helmich Roman (“the father of Swedish music”). The musical repertoire is largely foreign, primarily German and Italian, and is of considerable interest also for international researchers.
The digital images will be made accessible open access through the libraries’ platforms for digitized cultural heritage (ALVIN, and Libris/Sunet). The research database will be published open access through the Uppsala University Web Hotel. This database will include all relevant information in the musical manuscripts, and will offer researchers a powerful resource for future studies on the eighteenth-century collections included in the project. The database is intended as an open-ended, dynamic, resource, where new data will be added as they become available.
Final report
Purpose and Development
The project aimed to digitize and catalog collections of musical manuscripts from the Swedish Age of Liberty, with a focus on musical works that: 1) originate from 18th-century Sweden and were not imported later, and, 2) have at least a hypothetical connection to the royal court or Uppsala University.
In preliminary studies, 2,500 such manuscripts were identified at the Music and Theatre Library in Stockholm and the university libraries in Uppsala and Lund. During the project, additional manuscripts were located, which were incorporated in the project within the existing budget. In some cases, the identified titles from the preliminary studies needed to be divided into multiple entries. As a result, the published database catalog now contains no fewer than 4,809 catalog entries.
The broader research interest behind the project is the ambition to locate, delineate, and study the musical works used by the two most important Swedish music institutions of the 18th century: the Royal Court Chapel and the Academic Chapel in Uppsala. The material also offers potentially valuable insights into cultural relations between Sweden and the rest of Europe during the same period.
Project Results to Date
The project has been completed in accordance with the original project plan:
All relevant musical manuscripts have been digitized and published on the cultural heritage platform Alvin. The research-oriented database catalog has also been completed and published under a dedicated subdomain at Uppsala University: “Eighteenth-Century Music in Swedish Libraries: A Database Catalogue”,
The database provides detailed metadata and advanced search functions that enable complex queries, making it a particularly powerful and useful tool for music historical research.
During the final six months of the project, significant effort was dedicated to designing the database to ensure ease of use while maintaining advanced search capabilities, as well as creating a clear and visually appealing interface.
Use of the Infrastructure and Ongoing Research
Even during the project, the database began to be used—for example, by a newly recruited doctoral student in musicology at Uppsala University, who is researching the dissemination and use of Italian opera arias in Sweden during the Age of Liberty. Additionally, the database is currently being used for a Master’s thesis project on the reception of Vivaldi’s music in Sweden.
Project team member Maria Schildt has initiated several research projects based on the database, including studies on e.g. The Utile Dulci Society; Uppsala University’s musical activities; Reconstructing dispersed private and institutional collections; An article project on the extensive reception of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s "Stabat Mater" in Sweden.
The database has also been used in the completion of the book "The History of Church Music in Sweden", where Berglund is the main editor and Schildt is a contributing author.
There are also plans to develop and seek funding for a larger research project on Swedish 18th-century music, with the newly established database as its foundation.
Additionally, the database is an extremely valuable tool for performing musicians specializing in early modern music, as it helps them discover and perform new (or rediscovered) repertoire. The project collaborates with specialized ensembles, including baroque violinist Rebecka Karlsson, who has developed a concert program featuring repertoire from Utile Dulci’s collection.
Unforeseen Challenges
The only issue that led to a deviation from the original project plan was that the project team member responsible for the practical coding of the database accepted a teaching position before the project started and had to withdraw. However, a suitable replacement (Jonas Lundblad) was quickly found. Otherwise, the project was carried out entirely according to plan.
One minor task that remains unfinished is the cataloging of watermarks. However, this was only intended as a pilot project. While it is not a particularly high-demand metadata category, Berglund and Schildt would benefit from it for their own research, and they plan to complete it in the coming years.
Integration into the Organization and Long-Term Maintenance
The digitized images are stored on the Alvin platform, where Uppsala University is part of the consortium responsible for the resource, ensuring its long-term preservation.
The database catalog is maintained by the university’s central IT department, which will oversee maintenance, updates, and security, ensuring sustainability.
The Department of Musicology is responsible for the content and metadata development, and the solution is considered highly robust.
Accessibility of the Infrastructure
All digitized images and metadata are openly accessible via Alvin and the database catalog. The catalog is available in both Swedish and English.
International Collaborations
International networks have been valuable for the planning and execution of the project, particularly the collaboration with the Bach Archive at Leipzig University. However, the project itself did not require additional partnerships, as the team possesses world-leading expertise in both source materials and database catalog design.
The project aimed to digitize and catalog collections of musical manuscripts from the Swedish Age of Liberty, with a focus on musical works that: 1) originate from 18th-century Sweden and were not imported later, and, 2) have at least a hypothetical connection to the royal court or Uppsala University.
In preliminary studies, 2,500 such manuscripts were identified at the Music and Theatre Library in Stockholm and the university libraries in Uppsala and Lund. During the project, additional manuscripts were located, which were incorporated in the project within the existing budget. In some cases, the identified titles from the preliminary studies needed to be divided into multiple entries. As a result, the published database catalog now contains no fewer than 4,809 catalog entries.
The broader research interest behind the project is the ambition to locate, delineate, and study the musical works used by the two most important Swedish music institutions of the 18th century: the Royal Court Chapel and the Academic Chapel in Uppsala. The material also offers potentially valuable insights into cultural relations between Sweden and the rest of Europe during the same period.
Project Results to Date
The project has been completed in accordance with the original project plan:
All relevant musical manuscripts have been digitized and published on the cultural heritage platform Alvin. The research-oriented database catalog has also been completed and published under a dedicated subdomain at Uppsala University: “Eighteenth-Century Music in Swedish Libraries: A Database Catalogue”,
The database provides detailed metadata and advanced search functions that enable complex queries, making it a particularly powerful and useful tool for music historical research.
During the final six months of the project, significant effort was dedicated to designing the database to ensure ease of use while maintaining advanced search capabilities, as well as creating a clear and visually appealing interface.
Use of the Infrastructure and Ongoing Research
Even during the project, the database began to be used—for example, by a newly recruited doctoral student in musicology at Uppsala University, who is researching the dissemination and use of Italian opera arias in Sweden during the Age of Liberty. Additionally, the database is currently being used for a Master’s thesis project on the reception of Vivaldi’s music in Sweden.
Project team member Maria Schildt has initiated several research projects based on the database, including studies on e.g. The Utile Dulci Society; Uppsala University’s musical activities; Reconstructing dispersed private and institutional collections; An article project on the extensive reception of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s "Stabat Mater" in Sweden.
The database has also been used in the completion of the book "The History of Church Music in Sweden", where Berglund is the main editor and Schildt is a contributing author.
There are also plans to develop and seek funding for a larger research project on Swedish 18th-century music, with the newly established database as its foundation.
Additionally, the database is an extremely valuable tool for performing musicians specializing in early modern music, as it helps them discover and perform new (or rediscovered) repertoire. The project collaborates with specialized ensembles, including baroque violinist Rebecka Karlsson, who has developed a concert program featuring repertoire from Utile Dulci’s collection.
Unforeseen Challenges
The only issue that led to a deviation from the original project plan was that the project team member responsible for the practical coding of the database accepted a teaching position before the project started and had to withdraw. However, a suitable replacement (Jonas Lundblad) was quickly found. Otherwise, the project was carried out entirely according to plan.
One minor task that remains unfinished is the cataloging of watermarks. However, this was only intended as a pilot project. While it is not a particularly high-demand metadata category, Berglund and Schildt would benefit from it for their own research, and they plan to complete it in the coming years.
Integration into the Organization and Long-Term Maintenance
The digitized images are stored on the Alvin platform, where Uppsala University is part of the consortium responsible for the resource, ensuring its long-term preservation.
The database catalog is maintained by the university’s central IT department, which will oversee maintenance, updates, and security, ensuring sustainability.
The Department of Musicology is responsible for the content and metadata development, and the solution is considered highly robust.
Accessibility of the Infrastructure
All digitized images and metadata are openly accessible via Alvin and the database catalog. The catalog is available in both Swedish and English.
International Collaborations
International networks have been valuable for the planning and execution of the project, particularly the collaboration with the Bach Archive at Leipzig University. However, the project itself did not require additional partnerships, as the team possesses world-leading expertise in both source materials and database catalog design.