Re: Rossi

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

At 05:47 PM 6/26/01 +0000, you wrote:
>Actually, I don't think he used *any* elements of (what was before him) the 
>Jewish music of his time, or of any other time, in his compositions.  But they 
>were, for a brief time, the sacred music of some Italian Jews, so I think they 
>certainly count as Jewish music--though, indeed, they don't "sound" Jewish to 
>us, and no doubt didn't, at least initially, sound Jewish then; they sounded 
>Italian Renaissance.  

But if Jews took an active part in the Italian Renaissance--as Rossi did as one 
of the violinists at the Court of the Duke of Mantua--to many similar Jews, it 
might have indeed sounded Jewish. Robert, please be so kind as to share your 
sources that state this music was used in the synagogues of Northern Italy. I 
do believe it was written in response to a 1605 responsa--actually an 
apologia--by Rabbi Leon of Modena that asked for polyphonic, Renaissance-style 
singing in the synagogues of Northern Italy. But I'm curious as to the research 
that establishes this fact.

>Think Schubert's setting of the 92nd Psalm, purely in the style of ("Romantic 
>Classical") European music of his day (and his place).  That Rossi was himself 
>Jewish was almost incidental.

This analogy simply does not hold any water. Schubert--a non-Jew--was 
commissioned to write this piece by Salamone Sulzer; it was published ca. 1844 
in the first edition of Schir Zion. You cannot actually believe that a composer 
and musician who was also a Jew in Renaissance Italy would just "incidentally" 
choose to set Hebrew texts to Renaissance polyphony. For what earthly reason 
would he do it, if not to express pride in his Jewish identity, or--as 
intimated above--for possible use in the synagogues of Northern Italy? Because 
of his talents, Rossi was exempted from wearing the special "Jew's badge" that 
was a sumptuary requirement for all Jews--who as far as I know, despite their 
financial success, still lived in the ghettos of Northern Italy. His sister, 
called Madam Europa, I believe, was a successful opera singer.

Would someone who is more knowledgeable on this subject please weigh in on the 
status of Jews in Northern Italy in the late sixteenth, early seventeenth 
century? I simply don't have the time to do the research, but suspect that 
although it was a fairly enlightened time, the status of Jews varied from state 
to state and city to city. 

One thing I am certain of, however, there was plenty of rabbinical opposition 
to this type of music: Not mournful (or Jewish?) enough to commemorate the 
destruction of the Second Temple.

Eliott Kahn

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