Welcome! - Salamone Rossi, An Introduction

Welcome to The Italian Red Head, a new blog named after our favorite Jewish composer, Salamone Rossi! I am sure many of you are asking, "Who in G-d's name is Salamone Rossi?" and this blog will aim to answer that question as well as keeping you up to date with other Jewish music factoids of the Renaissance and Baroque, including updates on my thesis (more to come later!).

Before we delve into the life and works of Rossi, I must first tell you about how I came across him and how my fascination with him began:

Back in 2007, I was entering my sophomore year of college at the University of Miami Frost School of Music as a voice major. My very good friend, mentor, and advisor, Dr. Donald Oglesby enrolled me in the university's Collegium Musicum ensemble which specialized in the performance of early music, mostly Renaissance and Baroque choral music. Dr. O casually asked me if I was familiar with the name, Salamone Rossi. When I told him that I never heard the name before, he responded by saying that I should look him up.

That night I ran a simple Google search on Rossi and what I found nearly made me lose my mind! The results combined two of my favorite things: Jewish music and early music.

Salamone Rossi (c. 1570 - c. 1630) was considered to be the first Jewish composer to transcribe and physically notate his music using the music notation available during his time. Of course there were other composers before him, but unfortunately their scores are lost, if they even existed. Rossi's music was unique in the fact that he composed his Jewish liturgical music in the same style as his secular music which was in the typical Renaissance musical style. Rossi's music is the first known example of polyphonic choral singing in Jewish music.

Rossi composed 33 separate motets for select prayers, hymns, and psalms all in Hebrew. Another unique feature of his music lies within the publication history of the original scores. You see, back then Rossi faced quite a bit of Judaic opposition from the rabbinic leaders in Italy when trying to utilize his music in synagogues and publication. Most rabbis felt that the music sounded too closely to the music of non-Jews and the church to be allowed in a synagogue service, let alone having there be musical performance practices that might have resembled that of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during Biblical times. Rossi was lucky to have a friend and colleague, Rabbi Leon de Modena who is now known to be one of the ancestors of the Reform movement. Modena advocated for Rossi and published a rabbinic responsum that legalized his music.

Modena also assisted in the editing of the printed music for publication. It was he who insisted that the Hebrew text be printed in its original form so as not to have any doubt to its pronunciation when being sung. As a result, the Hebrew text is printed from right to left with the music being printed from left to right (a similar process is done with some Hebrew music transcribed by Benedetto Marcello in 1724 but more on that later...). See the score below for an example:

Trying to read an original Rossi score would make anyone go cross-eyed. Of course many modern editions were done of Rossi's Jewish works and as I will be working with those editions over the course of time, I will update you on each of them. 

As a parting gift each week, I will also post an audio clip or Youtube video of relevant material for you to enjoy. Thanks for stopping by and see you next week!