Tuesday, January 22, 2002

Registration: If you have not already registered, please visit the back table & register. If you have not already auditioned, please see Arlene at the break.

NEXT WEEK's REHEARSAL LOCATION: (JANUARY 29)
Remember, we will NOT be at Grace North Church. They have another event already planned here for that night. We will be meeting at: 2717 Hillegass Ave. in Berkeley, instead. MAP
Note that this is a private residence. We need volunteers to come to Grace around 6pm, & other volunteers to stay late, & help return chairs to Grace after rehearsal.

Carpooling: Carless choristers seeking rides from/to 1) Park Blvd. in East Oakland 2) Gilman & Santa Fe. Contact Cristin if you can provide rides for these individuals.

Marcelle (vocal coach) reminds you to: sing with your ribs out and sternum up. The ribs should be expanded (and preferably smothered in b-b-que sauce). The sternum up, as opposed to forward. (To avoid a sway back, which cuts off support.) This allows the diaphragm to rise and tuck under the ribs, thus allowing for greater breath control and maximum expulsion of air. (There's a reason why Superman has that big ole' "S" on his chest......)

Meet the composers: Salomon Rossi (c. 1579-c. 1630)
    In Rossi we see the apex of the Jewish participation in the Italian Renaissance. He was a gifted secular composer who collaborated with the musical giants of the era, including Monteverdi and Gastoldi. During the period of his employment at Mantua, he wrote volumes of songs, dances and concert music for his Christian patrons who, in gratitude, exempted Salamone from wearing the stipulated Jewish badge of shame. At the same time, here is the Jewish composer who proudly appended to his name the word "Hebreo"-Salamone Rossi the Jew.
    It is undoubtedly in the field of synagogue music that we find Rossi's most daring innovations. Since the beginning of the last diaspora, some 1900 years ago, Jews clung to an ancient and exotic musical tradition. Instruments were banned from the synagogue as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Bet HaMikdash. Change was frowned upon; prayer tunes were kept in their original form; no harmonization was allowed.
    But the times were changing. From within-The Jews of Mantua and Venice and Ferrara had developed a taste for le nuove musiche, the new music of the Renaissance. They began to question why the music of their synagogues should continue to sound so old-fashioned. And from without- the counter-Reformation demanded enforcement of the laws that separated the Jew from his neighbor. The first strictly segregated Jewish neighborhood was established in Venice in 1516. Named after the foundry located nearby, it was called the "ghetto." The enforced segregation in Mantua culminated in Duke Vincenzo's establishment of a barricaded ghetto in 1612. Now, at the peak of the Renaissance, Italian Jews were forced to turn increasingly inward. Now their appetites for le nuove musiche would have to be satisfied within the confines of their own community. The synagogue would provide the venue for this fine art. In Padua and Ferrara there were synagogue choirs at the end of the 16th century. In Modena there was an organ, in Venice a complete orchestra.
    Rossi is notably the first Jew ever to compose, perform and publish polyphonic settings of the synagogue liturgy for mixed choir.
    In the year 1630 the city of Mantua was stormed by invading Austrian troops. The Jewish ghetto was ravaged and its inhabitants fled the town. The Renaissance was over for the Jewish community. Choral music was no longer heard in the synagogue. Salamone Rossi probably died in that year and was all but forgotten.
    In was some 200 years later that the Baron Edmond de Rothschild, on a trip to Italy, stumbled on a strange collection of old music books bearing the name Salamone Rossi Hebreo. Intrigued by what he found, Rothschild handed over the manuscripts to Samuel Naumbourg, Cantor of the Great Synagogue of Paris. In 1876 the first modern edition of Rossi's music was published. Once again the voice of one of the sweetest singers of Israel, Salamone Rossi Hebreo, was heard in the land. http://www.zamir.org/composers/rossi/rossi-mon.html

Upcoming Concerts: San Francisco's Hawaiian Chorus presents a free concert on Sunday, February 10, 2002 at 3:00pm at Bethany United Methodist Church. 1268 Sanchez at Clipper in San Francisco. For more information, see Greg (bass).

Let Erica know if there are items you would like to see in "Nota Bene Bella".