Salamone Rossi

Biography

Salamone Rossi or Salomone Rossi (Hebrew: סלומונה רוסי or שלמה מן האדומים) (Salamon, Schlomo; de' Rossi) (ca. 1570 – 1630) was an Italian Jewish violinist and composer. He was a transitional figure between the late Italian Renaissance period and early Baroque.

Life

Rossi was likely born on 19 August 1570 in Mantua. Some scholars, like E. Werner, claimed that he was the son of the distinguished historian Azariah de’ Rossi; however, Azariah had no sons. Rossi spent his entire professional career in Mantua. As a young man, Rossi acquired a reputation as a talented violinist. He was then hired as a court musician in Mantua in 1587, where records of his activities as a violinist survive in the Gonzaga court.
Rossi served at the court of Mantua for 41 years, from 1587 to 1628 as concertmaster where he entertained the ducal family and their highly esteemed guests. The composers Rossi, Monteverdi, Gastoldi, Wert and Viadana provided fashionable music for banquets, wedding feasts, theatre productions and chapel services amongst others. Rossi was so well-thought of at this court that he was excused from wearing the yellow badge that was required of other Jews in Mantua. He also probably worked with a Jewish theatrical group, playing a significant role in Mantuan theatrical life in the ghetto, the Christian community, and at court. This is supported by Alessandro Pico, Prince of Mirandola, who requested that he, along with his ‘his group of musicians’ be sent to Mirandola to entertain the Duke of Modena.
Rossi was probably not related to any of the other Mantuan musicians with the same surname, such as Mattheo Rossi. The only exception is Rossi's sister, Madama Europa. She was an opera singer, and possibly the first Jewish woman to be professionally engaged in that area. Like her brother, she was employed at the court in Mantua; she is thought to have performed in the intermedio Il Ratto di Europa, by Gabriello Chiabrera and Gastoldi, during the wedding festivities for Francesco Gonzaga in 1608. Europa disappeared after the end of the Gonzaga court and the subsequent sack of the ghetto. Rossi himself died during the War of the Mantuan Succession, probably either during the invasion of Austrian troops, who defeated the Gonzagas and destroyed the Jewish ghetto in Mantua, or in the subsequent episode of plague which ravaged the area.

Italian

His first published work (released in 1589) was a collection of 19 canzonettes, short, dance-like compositions for a trio of voices with lighthearted, amorous lyrics. 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. In 1600, in the first two of his five madrigal books, Rossi published the earliest continuo madrigals, an innovation which partially defined the beginning of the Baroque era in music; these particular compositions included tablature for chitarrone.
Rossi published 150 secular works in Italian, including:
Canzonette a 3, Libro primo

I bei ligustri, for 3 voices
Correte amanti, for 3 voices
S'el Leoncorno, for 3 voices
Madrigali a 5, Libro primo

Cor Mio, madrigal for 5 voices
Dir mi che più non ardo, madrigal for 5 voices

Instrumental

In the field of instrumental music, Rossi was a bold innovator. He was one of the first composers to apply to instrumental music the principles of monodic song, in which one melody dominates over secondary accompanying parts. His trio sonatas, among the first in the literature, provided for the development of an idiomatic and virtuoso violin technique. They stand midway between the homogeneous textures of the instrumental canzona of the late Renaissance and the trio sonata of the mature Baroque.
Works published and preserved today include:

Il primo libro delle sinfonie e gagliarde a 3–5 voci (1607)
Il secondo libro delle sinfonie e gagliarde a 3–5 voci (1608)
Il terzo libro de varie sonate, sinfonie (1613)
Il quarto libro de varie sonate, sinfonie (1622)

Hebrew

Rossi also published a collection of Jewish liturgical music, השירים אשר לשלמה (Ha-shirim asher li-Shlomo, The Songs of Solomon) in 1623. The biblical Song of Solomon does not appear within The Songs of Solomon, hence the name is probably a pun on Rossi's first name (Rikko 1969).
The collection was written in the Baroque tradition and (almost) entirely unconnected to traditional Jewish cantorial music. Ostensibly intended for use in the synagogue, this was an unprecedented development in synagogal music.
The music was published in Venice, not by one of the specialist music printers who published Rossi's secular work, but by the Bragadin Press. A project of the aristocratic Bragadin family, the press had for decades monopolised the printing of Hebrew books in the republic. Rossi's is the earliest known published collection of liturgical music in Hebrew; there would not be another for two hundred years.
The publication begins with an introductory essay by the rabbi and scholar Leon of Modena. It praises Rossi's works and makes a case for the halachic suitability of composed music in Jewish liturgy, based on biblical precedents.
Rossi set many Biblical Hebrew texts to music in their original Hebrew language, which makes him unique among Baroque composers. His vocal music resembles that of Claudio Monteverdi and Luigi Rossi, but its lyrics are in Hebrew.
Milnes Vol. I

Adon 'olam (8v) piyyut
Recorded by Boston Camerata
Barekhu (3v) prayer
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009), Boston Camerata
Ein keloheinu (8v) piyyut
Elohim hashivenu Ps. 80:4, 8, 20
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Haleluyah. Ashrei ish yare et Adonai (8v) Ps. 112
Haleluyah. Haleli nafshi (4v) Ps. 146
Haleluyah. Ode Adonai (8v) Ps. 111
Hashkivenu (5v) prayer —
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Keter yitenu lakh (4v) Great kedusha
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Lamnatseah binginot mizmor shir (3v or 4v) Ps. 67
Mizmor le'Asaf. Elohim nitsav (3v) Ps. 82
Mizmor leDavid. Havu l'Adonai (6v) Ps. 29
Mizmor shir leyom hashabat (8v) Ps. 92
Shir hama'a lot. Esa'einai (5v) Ps. 121
Yigdal Elohim hai (8v) piyyut
Yitgadal veyitkadesh (3v and 5v) Full kaddish
Arranged for 5 voices and recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Milnes Vol. II
'Al naharot Bavel (4v) Ps. 137
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Barukh haba beshem Adonai (6v) Ps. 118:26–29
Recorded by Boston Camerata
Eftah na sefatai (7v) piyyut
Eftah shir bisfatai (8v) piyyut
Recorded by Boston Camerata
Ele mo'adei Adonai (3v) Lev. 23:4
Lamnatseah 'al hagitit (5v) Ps. 8
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Lamnatseah 'al hasheminit (3v) Ps.12
Lemi ehpots (8v) Wedding ode
Recorded by Profeti della Quinta (2009)
Mizmor letoda (5v) Ps. 100
Odekha ki'anitani (6v) Ps. 118:21–24
Shir hama'a lot. Ashrei kol yere Adonai (3v, 5v and 6v) Ps. 128
Shir hama'a lot. Beshuv Adonai (5v) Ps. 126
Shir hama'a lot leDavid. Lulei Adonai (6v) Ps. 124
Yesusum midbar vetsiya (5v) Isaiah 35:1–2, 5–6, 10

Recordings

Rossi, S: Il terzo libro de varie sonate, sinfonie, gagliarde, brandi e corrente, Op. 12 Il Ruggiero, Emanuela Marcante Tactus 2012
Rossi: (1) Vocal Works, (2) Madrigals, (3) Canti di Salomone. 3 CDs licensed from Tactus Records Italy to Brilliant Classics, Netherlands. BLC 93359
Madrigaletti op. XIII - Ensemble L'aura soave. Diego Cantalupi TC.571802 2000
Primo libro di madrigali a 4 voci - Arie a voce sola dal I Libro dei Madrigali a 5 voci - Ut Musica Poësis Ensemble Director: Stefano Bozolo TC.571803 2001
Canti di Salomone a 3 parti - Sonata e Salmi di Henry Purcell - Mottetto di André Campra - Ensemble Hypothesis Director: Leopoldo d'Agostino TC.571804 2003
The Songs of Solomon. Corvina Consort dir. Zoltan Kalmanovits, Hungaroton 2006
The Songs of Solomon, Volume 1: Music for the Sabbath. Pro Gloria Musicae PGM 108
The Songs of Solomon, Volume 2: Holiday and festival music Jewish sacred music from 17th-century Italy by Salamone Rossi, New York Baroque, dir. Eric Milnes. Troy, NY: Dorian, 2001
The Song of Solomon and Instrumental Music. Profeti della Quinta, Ensemble Muscadin. ℗2008, ©2009. Pan Classics PC 10214. Includes libretto with Hebrew texts
Rossi: Il mantovano hebreo Profeti della Quinta Vol.2 Elam Rotem Linn 2013
Salomone Rossi Ebreo: A Jewish Composer in 17th Century Italy Ensemble La Dafne, Stefano Rossi Release Date: 9th Feb 2018 GB5638 Bongiovanni
Rossi, S: The Two Souls of Solomon Ensemble Daedalus, Roberto Festa Accent
Salamone Rossi Hebreo Boston Early Music. dir. Prof. Joshua R. Jacobson
Salomone Rossi - Illumine Our Hearts Sursum Corda. MSR Classics. 2010-02-09
on collections

Musique judéo-baroque. Boston Camerata, dir. Joel Cohen. LP: ℗1979. CD: Arles: Harmonia mundi, ℗1988. Harmonia mundi France HMA 1901021
Jewish Baroque Music of Rossi, Lidarti, Caceres. Ensemble Salomone Rossi. Concerto CTO 2009
'Salamone Rossi Hebreo Mantovano': Siena Ensemble, directed by Michelene Wandor. Vocal and instrumental music. Classical Recording Company (London) 2002.
Sacred Bridges.The King's Singers and Sarband. Signum Classics SIGCD065 2005