Poetic idea

"I love being near you, I hate being away from you."

Background

It used to be believed that this song was composed by a famous Roman painter, Salvator Rosa (1615-1673). In fact , Rosa owned a hand-written book of songs; he had written the words to three of them. Long after Rosa's death, the book was sold to a British traveler, Dr. Charles Burney, who believed that Rosa had com­posed all of the poetry and all of the music in the book.

In A General History of Music , Burney described Rosa's book and printed musical excerpts from it. When Burney 's history became famous , the excerpts were arranged and published as solo songs, spread­ing the myth that Rosa had been a composer. Although musical scholars suspected that this was not true, the idea of a painter-composer appealed to many musicians of the Romantic era. Franz Liszt even wrote a piano piece, "Canzonetta di Salvator Rosa," based on one of the songs, "Vado ben spesso. "

In 1949 Frank Walker, an English musicologist, examined Rosa's book and determined that Rosa actually composed none of the music attribut­ed to him. The first twelve pieces in the book, all in one person 's hand­writing , are known from other sources to be works of well-known composers. The other pieces were copied by other persons onto blank pages in the book after Rosa's death. No. 15 is an aria that Alessandro Scarlatti composed in 1681. "Vado ben spesso, " now known to be a com­position of Giovanni Bononcini, is no. 19.

"Star vicino" is no. 21; it was cer­tainly copied into the book at least

62 • 2 6 I t a Ii a n Son g sa n dAr i a s

star vitfinoal bd:lidol ke s~ma Star vicino al bell'idol che s'ama To-be near to-the beautiful-idol that one-loves

eil pju vMo dilft:to damQr E il pin vago diletto d'amor. is the most attractive joy of-love.

star lont~no dal ben ke si br~ma Star lontano dal ben che si brama, To-be far from-the beloved whom one desires

e damQfeil pju vivo dolQr E d'amore il pin vivo dolor. is of-love the most vital sorrow.

eight years after Rosa's death. Dr. Walker reported that "Star vicino" is a da capo aria with a middle section that begins "Altre gioie" ("Other joys"). Unfortunately, the missing sec­tion has never been published.

The Rosa book was sold to a French musicologist, Genevieve Thibault. Since her death, the book has been unavailable to scholars and remains so as this is written.

Source

Charles Burney, A General History of Music, Vol. 4 (London: 1789). For voice and continuo. Original key: F major. This edition presents Burney's excerpt, m1-m16, followed by a sec­ond stanza based on versions from the 1800s. The text of the second stanza is by Count Pepoli of Bologna, and an anonymous editor added the final eight measures.

Bibliography

Frank Walker, "Salvator Rosa and Music," Monthly Musical Record, October 1949. Mr. Albi Rosenthal, London, confirmed the later owner­ship of the Rosa book.

Composer Unknown

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64 • 26 Italian Songs and Arias

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