Sheet music by Jozef Pantaleon Roskovsky

Slovak composer, outstanding organist and theoretician. Son of an organist from Stara Lubovna. He studied at the piaristic college in Podolinec and philosophy at the university of Trnava. In 1759 he entered the Franciscans Order. At that time he already mastered several instruments (organ, winds, violin) and was a good singer. After one ear noviciate in the monastery of St. Catharine near Trnava, he studied theology in Pest (1757-58) ad Bratislava (1759-61). He was priested in 1759 in Trnava. He worked in several churches of the Marian Province (Nove Zamky, Bratislava, Trnava, Pest) as a choirmaster, organist, singing teacher and confessor. The main repertoir of Roskovsky were liturgy chants which he gathered and issued in several textbooks. He was technically skilled which resulted in the above-average complexity of the repertoir. This might be the reason why his project of musical reform of the Marian Province was rejected. In 1769 the reform was done by P.G.Dettelbach. Only a few of his own compositions have been preserved. The early works are in baroque style, later he tended to classicism; he even rewrote some of the older works in the new style.