Salamone Rossi as a Composer of "Hebrew" Music

Two preliminary questions should be raised: why Salamone Rossi? why the quotation marks around the word 'Hebrew'?

Published in 1622/23, Rossi's collection of Hebrew 'Songs,' viz., 'The Songs of Solomon,' marks a milestone in the history of sacred music as the first and, until the nineteenth century, practically only collection of religious works by a Jewish composer of art music. They were written for various combinations of three to eight voices and intended for use 'on all sacred occasions.' We know about the composer, his intentions and the obstacles to their realization from the prefatory matter, or commentary, which, moreover, is unusually extensive: it includes two forewords; three laudatory poems; a rabbinical responsum to a query about the legitimacy of art music in the synagogue, followed by five statements of approbation by Venetian rabbis; and a notice of copyright. These together make the collection as much a literary, historical, and sociocultural document as a musical one.