Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

'
EOSA ROSALIA 141
and devote himself seriously to painting seemed
on the point of being fulfilled in 1635, when he
visited Rome for the first time. But becoming
ill, he returned to Naples at the end of six
months, and there became a pupil of the painter,
AnieUo Falcone, until 1637. Then again he
went to Rome, and accompanied a friend,
Merourio, in the service of the Cardinal
Brancaccio, to Viterbo, where he received a
commission to paint an altar-piece.
After a visit to Naples, he was again in Rome
in 1638 until September 1640, when he went
to Florence to take an appointment as painter
to the court of the Medici, a, post he held for
nearly nine years. During this time he met
Filippo Lippi, poet and painter, and Cesti, the
musician, and wrote La Strega, to which
Cesti composed the music, and H Zainento,
later on set to music by Bandini. It was probably
towards the end of 1640 that he wrote
the satire La musica, a violent attack on the
depraved taste shown in Italian church music.
It" was not published till some years after Rosa's
death, and evidently caused much agitation. It
was answered with a bitterness almost equal to
its own by Mattheson in his MUhridat vrider
den Gift einer welschem, Saiyre, genannt la
MvMca, Hamburg, 1749 ; in which a German
translation of the satire is given, with pages of
comments and annotations. The six satires.
La Musica, La Poesia, La Pittura, La
Guerra, La Bahilonia, and V Invidia, written
by Rosa between 1640 and 1669, were probably
first published in Rome in 1695 ; the title-page,
without date, and with Amsterdam falsely indicated
as the printing place, is as follows :
Satire di Salvator Rosa dedicate a settano. In
Amsterdam presso Severo Prothomaslix, 12mo,
p. 161. It was followed by numberless unauthorised
editions. The first dated edition
of 186 pages was printed in Amsterdam by
J. F. Bernard in 1719, the second edition is
dated 1781, and the third 1790. In 1770 there
was an edition Con note di A.M. Salvini, printed
at Florence, but with Amsterdam on the titlepage
; this was reprinted in 1781, 1784, and
1787.
Rosa on leaving Florence was in Volterra for
a time, and then returned to Rome in February
1649. The year 1647 was certainly passed
peaceably in Tuscany, in spite of the legend
which has it that Rosa was at Naples during
the insurrection in July 1647, and wsis one of
the compagnia ' della morte ' under the leadership
of the painter Falcone. To begin with, no
such company existed, and secondly, there are
letters preserved, written by Rosa to his friend
Maffei, one from Pisa, on Jan. 9, 1647, and
another from Florence, on Sept. 26, 1647, in
which the tumults at Naples are not even
alluded to (Cesareo, Poesie e lettere, 1892,
p. 55). In 1650 Rosa again visited Florence,
Pisa, and Siena, returning to Rome in December,
where he worked at his painting, finding relaxation
in writing songs to which either he or his
friend Gavalli, then in Rome, composed the
airs.
Rosa died in Rome on March 15, 1673, at
the age of fifty-eight, and was buried in the
church of Santa Maria degli Angioli alle Terme
di Diocleziano.
Little of Rosa's music is known, with the exception
of the songs published in the '
Gemme
His
d'antichit^' and other modem collections.
position, however, was one of some musical
interest. A personal friend of some of the leading
composers of the time—Cavalli, Cesti, Bandini
and others—he was so far in touch with the
new ideas just germinating, as to adopt the
method of writing for a single voice with basso
continuo accompaniment.
In 1770 Dr. Bumey acquired from a greatgrand-daughter
ofRosa, occupying the same house
on the Monte Santa Trinita in Rome in which
he had lived and died, a musical manuscript in
Rosa's handwriting, containing, besides airs and
cantatas by Cesti, Rossi, etc., eight cantatas
written and composed by Rosa himself. The
airs are melodious and vivacious, and have a
good deal of charm. Burney (Hist, of Music,
iv. pp. 165-8) gives the music of a certain
number of them ; they were also included by
N. d' Arienzo in his paper on Rosa in the Rivista
Mus. Hal. 1894, i. 389.
The better-known airs are Vado ben '
spesso,'
printed by Dr. Crotch in Specimens of Various
Styles, 1808. Edited by H. Bishop in Gemme
'
d'antichitk,' No. 26, and in La scuola antica,
No. 24, also in Marx's Gluck und die Oper,
1863. Beilage, No. 2. 'Star vieino,' edited
by W. H. pallcott, Gemme,' ' No. 27. And
Selve voi che,' edited by J. Pittmann, London,
'
1878. A manuscript copy of the latter is in
the Vienna Imperial Library, No. 19,242 in
Mantuani's catalogue. c. s.
ROSALIA (Germ. Vetter Michel, Schuster-
Jleck). A form of melody, vocal or instrumental,
in which a figure is repeated several times in
succession, transposed a note higher at each
reiteration.
The name is derived from an old Italian
Canto popolare, ' Rosalia, mia cara,' the Melody
of which is constructed upon this principle.
The well-known German Volkslied, 'Gestem
Abend war Vetter Michel da,' begins with a
similar repetition, and hence the figure is
frequently called in Germany, ' Vetter Michel.'
These titles, as well as that of ' Schusterfleck
-—a cobble—are of course given to it in derision
—for writers on composition regard its frequent
introduction as indicati ve of poverty of inventive
power. Nevertheless, it is frequently employed
by the great masters, witli charming effect, as