Lukas Foss
Salomon Rossi Suite
Jewish composer Salomone (also Salomon or Schlomo) Rossi, c. 1570 - 1630, first made his name as a violinist at the court in Mantua,
Italy from 1587 to 1628. He performed fashionable music for the royal set and
played violin in the orchestra of Claudio Monteverdi. Rossi worked in both the
late Italian Renaissance and early Baroque styles, first composing vocal works
such as canzonettes and madrigals when he was 18 or 19, as well as trio sonatas
for violin, and instrumental music that favored a predominant melodic line--an
innovation for the period. He also wrote Baroque-style music for the Jewish
liturgy, almost unheard of at that time. His collection was humorously called
Ha-shirim asher l'Shlomo, or "The Songs of Solomon," the title taken from his
name rather than that of the biblical king.
Like Rossi, one of composer Lukas Foss's first works to gain recognition was
a vocal piece. The Prairie, a cantata, was based on poems by Carl Sandburg and
completed in 1944 when Foss was 22. Foss had been composing music since the age
of 7, and after his family fled Nazi Germany in 1933, they settled in the US in
1937, where, he said, he "fell in love with America" and began studying music at
the famed Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
Foss has been a professor (at UCLA, Boston University, and New York State
University, where he founded the Center for Creative and Performing Arts), a
conductor (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Kol Israel
Orchestra of Jerusalem, and Milwaukee Symphony), and composer-in-residence
(Manhattan School of Music and Tanglewood Music Center). His compositions have
ranged from neo-classical to avant garde (Thirteen Ways of Looking at a
Blackbird, 1978), and his broad knowledge of western music has allowed him to
reflect various idioms throughout his work.
Foss completed the Salomon Rossi Suite in 1975 for the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra, resetting pieces by Rossi for modern instruments in a way that
preserves their original character. The opening, Moderato con moto, features a
stately brass chorale, segueing into the second movement, Allegro, in which
choirs of strings, brass, and woodwinds pass the melodic line between them. The
Andante features harp and timpani [harp, English horn, and bassoon
in the version performed today], mimicking lute and drum. Then
oboes and bassoons hold a musical conversation with piccolo, viola, trumpet, double bass, and
harp in the Allegretto sostenuto. The combination is winningly Renaissance in
feel, even with non-period instruments. The Lento is a slow and intimate piece
for strings alone, followed by the final Allegro, a bright and witty fugue for
the entire ensemble.
November 23, 2008
|