Salamone Rossi

The First Book of Madrigals  by Salamon Rossi, published in 1600, includes  six madrigals  with tablature for 'Chittarrone'.
This document  represents a unique model for instrumental accompaniment  and the first example about the evolution of Chitarrone  as a continuous instrument.
The aim of this work is to demonstrate, through the analysis of madrigals with particular regard to Chitarrone tablatures, that Salamon Rossi’s book can be considered as an early example of ‘basso continuo’, in spite of general views defining the First Book of Madrigals just as an example of ‘basso seguente’.
In this study, the birth of the basso continuo and its development are presented, as well as the role of the lute in the development of accompanying practice; the history of Chitarrone is also taken into account - from its first appearance to its gradual dissemination across Europe.
The important role of Salamon Rossi in the progress of Chitarrone’s practice  is the core of this thesis, with a particular focus on the First Book of Madrigals.
In the appendix, my  transcription and analysis of six madrigals is included in order to supply a critical apparatus for the interpretation of the whole work. Indeed, the few examples of transcriptions available in the literature do not always correspond to Rossi’s original tablature. This work aims to fill a gap in the field, providing amendments to errors made in the original version.

An apparent contradiction lies at the heart of Salamone Rossi's Ha-shirim 'asher li-Shlomo (The Songs of Solomon), his volume of polyphonic compositions set to Hebrew texts published in Venice in 1622-1623. The rabbinical "copyright" attached to the music states in fact that Salamone became "'adam ha-rishon lehadpis musiqah 'ivrit" ("the first man to print Jewish music"). Given this claim of primacy, modern readers might expect Rossi's musical settings to display recognisably Jewish traits beyond their Hebrew texts. However, distinctive markers of Rossi's Jewish heritage are confined to those texts, to the introductory apparatus of the volume and to the fact that the Shirim were destined to be sung in Jewish social contexts and venues. Stylistically, the music itself bears all the hallmarks of Italian polyphonic motets and conservative secular madrigals of the late Renaissance.

Muoviamo da una considerazione presente nel review-article di Edwin Seroussi sulla monografia di Don Harrán dedicata a Salomone Rossi 1 : nel textbook storico-musicale di riferimento in uso nelle università occidentali, autori Grout e Palisca, Salomone Rossi non è affatto presente 2 . Questo dato di fatto lascia intravedere come la rilevanza della produzione di Rossi nel suo insieme, all'interno dello scacchiere della musica europea, non sia considerata paragonabile ad esempio a quella di Claudio Monteverdi, per non citare che un contemporaneo attivo nella stessa città, Mantova, grosso modo nei medesimi anni.