Re: Salamone Rossi's ha-Shirim asher li-Shelomo

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

Hi Alex:

It's generally accepted by 20th century Jewish musicologists that Rossi's 
collection of sacred motets "ha-Shirim asher li-Shelomo" does not contain any 
nusach nor any recognizable Jewish motifs indigenous to Northern Italian Jews. 
The musicologists who accepted this included A.Z. Idelsohn, Peter Gradenwitz, 
Aron Marko Rothmueller, Alfred Sendrey, and Joel Newman--who participated in 
the scholarly edition with Fritz Rikko in 1973.

This theory, however, was called into question in Joshua Jacobson's article "A 
Possible Influence of Traditional Chant on a Synagogue Motet of Salomone 
Rossi." (Musica Judaica, vol. 10, 1987-88, 52-58.) Jacobson found a tune for 
"Elohim hashivenu" (rolling up the Torah scroll) in the Levi Collection, a 
collection of recordings of Northern Italian synagogue melodies made in the 
1950s. Jacobson's transcription of the tune indeed shows striking similarities 
to Rossi's polyphonic setting of "Elohim hashivenu" in his 1623 collection. 
Jacobson does leave the possibility open, however, that the tune in the Levi 
Collection could possibly have evolved from the Rossi motet and not the other 
way around. But nobody can be certain in either case.

I'm sure Francesco Spagnolo can shed far more light on this than I can. I 
believe he's been working with the Levi Collection.

RE: whether Rossi wrote "Jewish music" or not, if it didn't contain 
recognizable nusah, consider this: Except for isolated examples--almost all by 
non-Jews--Rossi's notated, polyphonic settings of Hebrew texts (prayers and 
psalms)  preceded the first notated examples of a Jewish "art music," i.e. 
Sulzer's "Schir Zion" by over 200 years. 

Some people say Noach was more of a Tsadik than Avraham Avinu because he lived 
in such a wilderness.

The new scholarly edition of "ha-Shirim" edited by Don Harran and published by 
Haensler Verlag should be out momentarily.

Eliott Kahn


> > I would like to add something to the points you discuss about =BF what =
> > is Jewish music? did you hear  about the italian
> > composer Salomone de Rossi (1570-1630) who lived under the Duke of =
> > Mantua,(the real one not Rgolleto's) I have two CD's of his music, one =
> > of them CARLTON CLASSICS 30366 00452, if somebody heard it,what your =
> > opinion about, is this Jewish music? 
>
>As most people on this list know, I have proposed a particular definition that 
>Jewish music is that which Jewish use to propagate Jewish life, which would 
>certainly have been Rossi's purpose.  Stylistically it's very much like other 
>Italian sacred vocal polyphony of its time.  My criterion does not include 
>whether I personally think it sounds Jewish or not (although, like everyone 
>else
>on this list, I have ideas about what that means which, like everyone, derive 
>from the limits of my experience).  In the 20th century, one could ask the 
>same 
>question about any of Schoenberg's 'Jewish' pieces.
>
>There was a cantor who wrote a musicology dissertation on Sulzer at the 
>University of ?hicago (his first name was Abraham and I'm sorry I don't recall 
>his last name, it's been years since I've seen him), who alleged a strong if 
>not
>always obvious connection to nusach.  I spoke to him about it a few times, but 
>never saw the dissertation so I can't say anything more about the analysis.  
>I've often wondered if such a connection did not exist in Rossi as well. I'm 
>no 
>Rossi maven and I have no idea, but it seems feasible, since nusach must have 
>been part of his musical world, probably a big part.
>
>
>
>Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
>Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
>Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
>University of Minnesota
>2106 4th St. S
>Minneapolis, MN 55455
>612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)
>

Dr. Eliott Kahn
Music Archivist
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
3080 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
WK: (212) 678-8076
FAX (212) 678-8998
elkahn (at) jtsa(dot)edu

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