Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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18th
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148 ROSINA ROSSI
rough rosin down in vinegar, a process no longer
in vogue, as excellent French rosin is now to
be had at a very trifling cost. It is prepared
by dissolving the rough article in a glazed
earthen vessel over a slow charcoal fire. As it
melts, it is strained through coarse canvas into
a second vessel also kept at a moderate heat,
from which it is poured into pasteboard or metal
moulds. The process requires some delicacy of
eye and hand, and the greatest care in handling
so inflammable a material, and is usually entrusted
to women. Some players aflisct to prefer
the rosin of Gand, others that of Vuillaume, but
both are made of the same material and at the
same factory. Eosin should be transparent, of
a darkish yellow colour in the mass, and quite
white when pulverised : it ought to fall from
the bow, when first applied to the strings, in a
very fine white dust : when crushed between the
fingers it ought not to feel sticky. The best
rosin is made from Venetian turpentine. The
same sort of rosin serves for the violin, viola,
and violoncello. The double-bass bow requires
a stifler preparation than pure rosin, and accordingly
double-bass rosin is made of ordinary rosin
and white pitch in equal proportions. Emery
powder and other matters are sometimes added
in the composition of rosin, but are quite
unnecessary, and even injurious to the tone.
A liquid rosin, applied to the bow with a camel'shair
brush, has its advocates. [See CoLorHANE,
vol. i. p. 565.] E. J. p.
EOSINA. An English ballad opera, of the
century, which attained an extraordinary
degree of popularity, holding the boards, as
a stock piece, for nearly half a century. The
libretto, written by Mrs. Brooke, is founded on
the Scriptural story of Ruth and Boaz ; or of
Palemon and Lavinia, in Thomson's 'Seasons,'
a subject which has inspired numbers of
theatrical pieces.
The opera was first produced at Covent Garden
in 1783, and its music was written, selected,
and arranged by William Shield. Miss Harper
took the title-r61e ; Mrs. Martyr, Phoebe, and
Mrs. Kennedy the hero, William, while the
rest of the male characters were taken by
Messrs. Banister, Brett, and Davies.
A passage in the overture has long been a
bone of contention. It is arranged for the
oboe, with a bass for ' bassoons, etc. to imitate
the bagpipe.' This fragment of melody is exceedingly
like that of Auld Lang ' Syne,' and it
has, therefore, been contended that Shield was
-the author of the air for the celebrated Scotch
song. This is, however, scarcely proven, for
there exist in prior publications other strathspeys,
as 'The Miller's Daughter,' and 'The
Miller's Wedding,' which also resemble the wellknown
air, and these, together with a song,
are also prototypes of the Scotch national
melody. F. K.
ROSS, John, born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Oct. 12, 1763, was placed in his eleventh year
under Hawdon, organist of St. Nicholas Church,
a disciple of Charles Avison, with whom he
studied for seven years. In 1783 he was
appointed organist of St. Paul's Chapel, Aberdeen,
where he remained until hia death, July
28, 1837. He composed 'An Ode to Charity,'
pianoforte concertos and sonatas, songs, canzonets,
hymns, waltzes, etc. w. H. H. ; additions
from Brit. Mus. Biog.
EOSSETEK, Philip, a lutenist, bom about
1575, in 1601 issued 'A Booke of Ayres, set
foorth to be song to the Lute, Orpherian, and
Base VioU,' containing forty-two songs, the
poetry and music of the first twenty-one by
Campion, and the rest by Eosseter himself.
[A selection of eight of the forty-two songs
was reprinted in 1907, as vol. iv. of the Oriana
Madrigal Society's publication, 'Euterpe' (Breitkopf&
Hiirtel)]. In 1609 he published Lessons
'
for Consort : Made by sundry excellent Authors,
and set to sixe severall instruments ; Namely,
the Treble Lute, Treble VioU, Base VioU,
Bandora, Citterne, and the Flute.' On Jan.
4, 1610, a patent was granted to him and
others appointing them Masters of the Children
of the Queen's Eevela, under which they carried
on dramatic performances at the theatre in
Whitefriars. In March 1612, Rosseter's company
was joined by 'The Lady Elizabeth's
Servants,' but the union lasted for a year only.
In May 1615 a privy seal for a patent for the
erection of a theatre in Blackfriars was granted
to Rosseter, Philip Kingman, Robert Jones, and
Ralph Reeve, but the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
compelled them to surrender it, when the
building was nearly finished. [See Jones,
Robert, vol. ii. p. 544, where the date of the
patent is to be corrected.] Rosseter died on
May 5, 1623. (Corrections, etc. from Diet, of
Nat. Biog.) w. H. H.
ROSSl. Nofewerthantwenty-eightmusicians
of this name are enumerated in the Quellen-
Lexikon, and as there are motets and other
works in various libraries attributed to '
Rossi
without further identification, there is still a
large field open for careful research before the
facts can be absolutely ascertained. Of these
older bearers of the name there are seven who
may be distinguished as important " :
(1)
Salomone, a Jewish musician, was at the
court of Mantua from 1587 to 1628, when he
appears to have died. He enjoyed such high
favour with two successive dukes that he was
privileged to dispense with the yellow badge
that all Jews were ordered to wear. He issued
madrigals and canzonets in 1589, 1600, 1602, -
1603, 1610, 1614, and 1628, but his most
important works were instrumental, being contained
in four books, called 'Sinfonie e Gagliarde'
and 'Senate' (1607, 1608, 1623, and 1636).
He wrote twenty-eight compositions (a 4-8) to
Hebrew psalms, published in two editions, in