As the eighteenth century progressed, Trondheim experienced strong economic growth. The Great Nordic War was over, and merchants set about exporting timber, stockfish, and copper...

As the eighteenth century progressed, Trondheim experienced strong economic growth. The Great Nordic War was over, and merchants set about exporting timber, stockfish, and copper from the mines of Trøndelag. They maintained close contact with their networks in the main cities of Northern Europe, and Trondheim's luxury and extravagance characterised its social milieu. Thus, the latest fashions, literature and music from the Continent found their way to Trondheim. This recording portrays a selection of contemporaneous music that is preserved in Trondheim. The manuscripts may be found in the Gunnerus Library's special collections and probably belonged to the town musician and polymath Johan Daniel Berlin (1714–87) and his circle of musicians. They provide a unique insight into how European instrumental music found fertile ground in one of Denmark–Norway's largest provincial towns in the decades preceding the union's dissolution in 1814.