Re: Rossi

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

  One could argue that some of the dissonant qualities of the Music of Rossi 
and the Time were at least"Moorish" in influence. And "Moorish" isn't all 
that far off from certain types of Palentine Jewish Music
     Trudi the g


>From: Eliott Kahn <Elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: Rossi
>Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 14:43:36 -0400
>
>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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