Introduction

Abstract

Abstract There were Jewish musicians before Salamone Rossi, but Rossi was the first of them to leave an indelible imprint on European music history as a composer. We know little of his predecessors: most appear to have been instrumentalists, perhaps accompanying themselves while they sang—Abramo dall’Arpa, active in Mantua around the mid-sixteenth century, comes to mind. Of early Jewish composers we know even less. It stands to reason that some may have written one or more works, probably for a single voice, as, for example, Obadiah the Proselyte, thought to be the author of music to a prayer and part of a hymn in the twelfth century. The larger part of the instrumentalists and composers are likely to have yielded to external pressures by converting to Christianity, as did Mahieu le juif, a trouvere from the thirteenth century, or the lutenist Giovanni Maria ebreo, active in Rome, until 1523, under Leo X, Adrian VI, and Clement VIl.