Camilla de Rossi: c. 1670-c. 1710

Not a biographical image

Selected Recordings

Il Figliuol Prodigo

Il Sacrifizio di Abramo 6/6

Oratorio S. Alessio

Selected Sheet Music

Il Sacrifizio di Abramo

Source: SheetMusicPlus (for purchase)

Showcase Piece

Il sacrifizio di Abramo

Notes and Commentary

Camilla de Rossi was an Italian composer of Roman citizenship. She composed four oratorios for solo voices and orchestra, all of which were commissioned by Emperor Joseph I of Austria and were performed in the Imperial Chapel in Vienna. Rossi’s surviving works demonstrate a knowledge of stringed instruments and, as Barbara Garvey Jackson describes, “a keen interest in tone color.” Her oratorios are for solo voices; none of her works use choruses. She calls for various instruments (chalumeaux, archlute, trumpets, oboe) with string orchestra (including continuo). Her oratorio, Il Sacrifizio di Abramo, suggests a knowledge of instruments, strings in particular. But the piece also calls for two chalumeaux, an instrument first heard in Vienna in 1707, one year before her oratorio was performed for the first time in 1708. Her cantata Frá Dori e Fileno is for strings and two soloists.—Excerpted from Wikipedia