The Auguste Rouma Collection, acquired by the library of the Royal Conservatories of Brussels in 2015, comprises a remarkable collection of scores and documents gathered throughout his life by the violinist and pedagogue from Liège, Auguste Rouma (1802-1874).
Encompassing several thousand documents, including many scores not listed in RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales), the Auguste Rouma Collection brings together materials belonging to three key figures of the Liège violin school: Auguste Rouma (1802-1874), professor at the Liège Conservatory and musician in the orchestra of the Grand Théâtre de Liège; his teacher, Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain (1754-1833); and his student and protégé, Hubert Léonard (1819–1890), a virtuoso concert performer and professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from 1848 to 1867.
The collection contains an impressive number of violin scores, offering a window into nearly 150 years of repertoire dedicated to the instrument. It includes, for example, 180 concertos, 200 theme and variation pieces and fantasias, 160 études and caprices, 370 duets for two violins, 400 string quartets, as well as hundreds of trios and quintets. Additionally, the collection features nearly 700 works for pianoforte and harpsichord, and around 200 arias, romances, songs, and melodies.
Among the works in the Rouma Collection are those by many of the 19th century’s foremost violinist-composers, including Pierre Rode, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Baillot, Jacques-Féréol Mazas, Henry Vieuxtemps, Hubert Léonard, Charles-Auguste de Bériot, Giovanni Battista Viotti, Niccolò Paganini, and Ludwig Spohr, alongside renowned composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Hummel, Ignaz Pleyel, and Muzio Clementi.
The collection also holds a significant number of works by lesser-known composers such as Joseph Mayseder, Nicolas-Lambert Wéry, Georges Onslow, Alessandro Rolla, Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Gottlieb Reissiger, Charles-Philippe Lafont, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Franz Krommer, Antoine Fontaine, Daniel Steibelt, Léopold Aimon, Louis Clapisson, and Nicolas Jean-Jacques Masset.
The types of sources in the Auguste Rouma Collection are highly varied: manuscript copies (by copyists or in autograph), rare editions — including some published in Liège — full orchestral scores, numerous collections of études and technical manuals, as well as sketches. The acquisition of the collection revealed autograph manuscripts of 160 string quartets and 30 concertos by Pieltain, along with many autograph manuscripts by Léonard (concertos, fantasias, concerto cadenzas). The collection also highlights Auguste Rouma’s work as a transcriber; he notably produced a large-format copy of the orchestral score of Vieuxtemps' first violin concerto and transcribed several works by Hubert Léonard. Among the treasures is a printed score of Mendelssohn's famous Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, annotated with Hubert Léonard’s fingerings and bowings. Léonard worked on this concerto with Mendelssohn in Leipzig in February and March of 1845. As such, this annotated score, along with the musicians’ correspondence, offers invaluable insight into the genesis of one of the cornerstone works of the classical music repertoire.
Beyond musical works, the Auguste Rouma Collection also includes a rich iconographic collection of over 70 illustrations, recently restored, the oldest dating back to the late 17th century. Among them are lithographs dedicated by Vieuxtemps (a friend of Rouma), Léonard, Bériot, and Paganini, as well as a pencil drawing of Hummel on his deathbed accompanied by a lock of his hair as a relic, gifted by his son to Léonard.
Lastly, the collection contains more than 300 archival documents, including concert programs, newspaper articles, administrative and financial records, and an extensive correspondence featuring letters from notable musicians such as Joseph Joachim, Spohr, Baillot, and of course, Mendelssohn.