Al naharot bavel salamone rossi biography

Salamone de' ROSSI(cc)
Songs of Solomon
see end of review for track listing
Pro Cantione Antiqua (Paul Esswood, Robert Harre-Jones, Robin Blaze, Timothy Penrose (alto), James Griffett. Simon Berridge, Joseph Cornwell, Ian Partridge (tenor), Stephen Roberts, David Beavan, Adrian Peacock (bass))/Sydney Fixman
rec. January , The West London Synagogue, London, UK. DDD
Texts only in English translation
MUSICAL CONCEPTS MC []

With the emergence of historical performance practice the interest in music other than that written by the famous composers of the 17th and 18th century has also risen. As a result we have seen many composers put on the map of music history who only a couple of decades ago were almost completely unknown. A special branch of interest is the work of Jewish composers in those days. These usually didn't take a prominent position in the music scene: in many countries the Jews were persecuted, and at best they were tolerated. In public life they played only a relatively marginal role.
 
One of the composers who is more or less an exception is Salamone (de') Rossi who worked in Mantua and had a relatively

Salamone Rossi: A Jew among Jews and a Jew Among Christians

jenrolnick

There I stood on the millennium stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as one of the forty members of Zemer Chai, the Jewish chorale of the nation’s capital. We had practiced for months to share highlights of Jewish music with the community in celebration of Channukah. Some of our selections were familiar standards like Maoz Tzur and I Have a Little Dreydel. Others were less familiar, but the piece that I looked forward to the most was Eftach Na S’fataifrom Hashirim asher Lish’lomo (The Songs of Solomon), a thirty-three-piece collection of Hebrew works composed by seventeenth century Jewish-Italian composer, Salamone Rossi. Rossi’s music resembles that of other baroque composers like his contemporary, Claudio Monteverdi, but it is unique in its masterful setting and use of Hebrew text.

Eftach Na S’fatai was the opening piece of our concert. Rossi wrote it to be sung either in a small setting by seven individual voices, or as we performed it, in a large setting for three soloists and a choir. The three soloists begin with a declaratory statement. Then, the choir responds

Salamone Rossi

Salamone Rossi

Salamone Rossi (c. – c. ) was employed at the Gonzaga court in Mantua as violinist and composer. What little information we have about his life is gleaned from his published works—six books of madrigals, one book of duets, one book of canzonets, four books of instrumental dances and sonatas, a balletto, and a path-breaking collection of Hebrew motets for the synagogue. Unlike his Christian colleagues, Rossi composed no liturgical music for the church, but his collection of choral music for the synagogue is the only work of its kind and quality to appear before the nineteenth century. 

Al Naharot Bavel

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