Salomone Rossi (1570-1630)

Rossi who was a Rabbi as well, worked as a talented violinist in the court of Mantua by request of the duchess Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, from 1587 to 1628 where he entertained the royal family and their highly esteemed guests .

A collection of 19 ``canzonettes'' (released in 1589) was his first published work. Rossi also flourished in his composition of more serious madrigals, combining the poetry of the greatest poets of the day (e.g. Guarini, Marino, Rinaldi, and Celiano) with his melodies.

As a very innovative musician he was one of the first composers to apply to instrumental music the principles of monodic song. His trio sonatas, among the first in the literature, provided for the development of an idiomatic and virtuoso violin technique. They are mid-way between the homogeneous textures of the instrumental canzona of the late Renaissance and the trio sonata of the mature Baroque periods.

Rossi also published a collection of Jewish liturgical music, Ha-shirim asher l'Shlomo, (The Songs of Solomon) in 1623.

Even though this was written in the early Baroque tradition and is almost entirely unconnected to traditional Jewish cantorial music, it was still an unprecedented development in synagogal music.

A reproduction of the title page of the alto part-book is given below. In accordance with the practice of Hebrew printing, each part-book opens from right to left. The entire prefatory text is in Hebrew, with the exception of the name of the publisher which appears in Italian. The translation of the title page is as follows^4.1:

Alto
The Songs
of Solomon
Psalms, songs and hymns of praise
which have been composed according to the science of music
for three, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 voices
by the honored master Salamone Rossi, may his Rock
keep him and save him,
a resident of the holy congregation of Mantua,
to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing His most
exalted name on all
sacred occasions. A new thing
in the land.

Here in Venice, 1622
at the command of their Lordships
Pietro and Lorenzo Bragadini
in the house of Giovanni Calleoni.
By the distinguished Lords
Pietro and Lorenzo Bragadini

Rossi used many standardized devices of text expression,to elucidate the meaning of some words. For example, a startling chromatic progression depicts the word ``wept'', a flowing melisma suggests the word ``river'', and an abrupt change to lively rhythms is used for the word ``rejoice''.

Rossi found that his musical innovation caused a great deal of controversy. From the correspondence of Rabbi Leone of Modena, we gather the following incident which took place in a synagogue in Ferrara in the first decade of the seventeenth century.

Musically elaborate singing, following a ``score'' was actually quite an innovation.

Music in the Synagogue was a very controversial subject. The composing of a book of motets for the use in a Synagogue was such a audacious thing that Rossi's friend, the liberal Rabbi Leone, himself an amateur musician, supplied as a preface to the collection a lengthy and learned responsum on the subject of music in the synagogue.

I do not see how anyone with a brain in his skull could cast any doubt on the propriety of praising God in song in the synagogue on special Sabbaths and on festivals...No intelligent person, no scholar ever thought of forbidding the use of the greatest possible beauty of voice in praising the Lord, blessed be He, nor the use of musical art which awakens the soul to His glory.

Also interesting is that this preface to Rossi's collection concludes with a copyright notice that is the first of its kind in protecting the rights of a composer. Its warning was couched in no uncertain terms:

We have agreed to the reasonable and proper request of the worthy and honored Master Salamone Rossi of Mantua...who has become by his painstaking labors the first man to print Hebrew music. He has laid out a large disbursement which has not been provided for, and it is not proper that anyone should harm him by reprinting similar copies or purchasing them from a source other than himself. Therefore...we the undersigned decree by the authority of the angels and the word of the holy ones, invoking the curse of the serpent's bite, that no Israelite, wherever he may be, may print the music contained in this work in any manner, in whole or in part, without the permission of the abovementioned author...Let every Israelite hearken and stand in fear of being entrapped by this ban and curse. And those who hearken will dwell in confidence and ease, abiding in blessing under the shelter of the Almighty.

Salamone Rossi probably died either in the invasion of Austrian troops, who destroyed the Jewish ghettos in Mantua, or in the subsequent plague which ravaged the area.