Michelangelo Rossi (Michel Angelo del Violino) (ca. 1601/1602 – 1656) was an important Italian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era. Rossi was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, where he studied with his uncle, Lelio Rossi organist (from 1601 to 1638), at the

Cathedral of San Lorenzo Genoa Cathedral or Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Lawrence ( it, Duomo di Genova, ''Cattedrale di San Lorenzo'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Italian city of Genoa. It is dedicated to Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo), and is the seat of t ...

. Around the year 1624 he moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to enter the service of

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Maurizio of Savoy. It was there that he met the

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

composer

Sigismondo d'India Sigismondo d'India (c. 1582 – before 19 April 1629) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the most accomplished contemporaries of Monteverdi, and wrote music in many of the same forms as the more ...

as well as the

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

composer

Girolamo Frescobaldi Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of k ...

.
Rossi's two books of madrigals, which have only comparatively recently come to scholarly attention, were likely written during this period. Rossi's madrigal output from this period is remarkably chromatic, to a level matched only by the music of such experimental composers as

Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...

. The circumstances of Rossi's dismissal from the Cardinal's service in 1629, after a short stay in Turin, are unclear.
From 1629 to 1632 Rossi was organist in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. Rossi's first known

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

dates from his second period of Roman service, while in the retinue of the wealthy

Taddeo Barberini Taddeo Barberini (1603–1647) was an Italian nobleman of the House of Barberini who became Prince of Palestrina and Gonfalonier of the Church; commander of the Papal Army. He was a nephew of Pope Urban VIII and brother of Cardinals Frances ...

. His opera ''Erminia sul Giordano'' was premiered during the

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

of 1633 at the theatre of the Palazzo Barberini (Rossi himself played the violin on stage as the sun-god Apollo), and appeared in print four years later.
In 1634 Rossi left Rome to enter the service of the Duke of Modena

Francesco I d'Este Francesco I d'Este (6 September 1610 – 14 October 1658) was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son of Alfonso III d'Este, he became reigning duke after his father's abdication. Biography The pestilence of 1630–16 ...

. A second opera by him, ''Andromeda'' (libretto by Ascanio Pio di Savoia), was first performed in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

in 1638.
By 1648 Rossi had returned to Rome and from 1649 to 1655, as a chamber servant ("cameriere extra muros") of

Pope Innocent X Pope Innocent X ( la, Innocentius X; it, Innocenzo X; 6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (or Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death in January ...

, he was residing in the palace of pope's courtesans nearby the

Quirinale Palace The Quirinal Palace ( it, Palazzo del Quirinale ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, one of the three current official residences of the president of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporzia ...

.
He died in Rome on 7 July 1656 and was buried in the church of

Sant'Andrea delle Fratte Sant'Andrea delle Fratte ("Saint Andrew of the Thickets") is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the ''Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis'' is Ennio Antonelli. History The current chu ...

. Although Rossi was famed as an outstanding violinist in his lifetime, no violin compositions survive and today his reputation rests chiefly on one surviving volume of keyboard music. Those 10 ''Toccatas'' are highly regarded (amongst these, ''Toccata VII'' with its wildly chromatic ending is best known). They are stylistically close to the music of

and

Johann Jakob Froberger Johann Jakob Froberger ( baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dances in h ...

, while being individual, and they enjoy a reputation as a significant milestone in the keyboard literature. While the publication date of these toccatas is usually cited as 1657 he year after Rossi's death which is printed on one of the four surviving copies, it seems clear from research and deduction by Alexander Silbiger that they more likely were first published in the early 1630s, which not only fits with the characteristics of their style but also implies that the other keyboard composers such as Frescobaldi could easily have been influenced by Rossi as well as vice versa.

References

*Rossi, Michelangelo ''The Madrigals of Michelangelo Rossi''. Edited by Brian Mann. 240 p., 6 halftones, 7 musical examples, 1 table. 9 x 12 2002 Series: (MRM) Monuments of Renaissance Music (), 2003 *Moore, Catherine. "The Composer Michelangelo Rossi: A `Diligent Fantasy-Maker' in Seventeenth-Century Rome". Garland: New York and London, 1993. utstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities*Silbiger, Alexander. 'Michelangelo Rossi and His Toccate "e Correnti"'. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring, 1983), pp. 18–38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/830953 *A. Morelli, "Rossi, Michelangelo", in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', vol. 88, Rome, 2017, pp. 676–679.

External links

* *Downloadable score of Toccata Settima (1657) at atticbooks.co.uk
A. Morelli, "Rossi, Michelangelo", in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Michelangelo 1600s births 1656 deaths Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Male opera composers Italian Baroque composers Italian classical organists Male classical organists Italian classical violinists Male classical violinists 17th-century Italian composers 17th-century male musicians