Costanzo Festa (c. 1485/1490 – 10 April 1545) was an Italian composer of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. While he is best known for his
madrigals
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...
, he also wrote
sacred
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
vocal music
Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with musical instruments, instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which ...
. He was the first native Italian
polyphonist of international renown, and with
Philippe Verdelot
Philippe Verdelot (1480 to 1485–1530 to 1540) was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. He is commonly considered to be the father of the Italian madrigal, and certainly was one of its earliest and most prol ...
, one of the first to write madrigals, in the infancy of that most popular of all sixteenth-century Italian musical forms.
Life
Not much is known about his early life. He was probably born in the
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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near
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, but the evidence for this is not certain, being based mainly on later documents referring to him as a ''clericis secularibus'', i.e. not a monk, from that region. His birth date has been given as early as 1480 and as late as 1495, but recent scholarship has tended to narrow the range to the late 1480s.
[Haar, Grove online] In addition he may have been related to his slightly younger contemporary
Sebastiano Festa
Sebastiano Festa (ca. 1490–1495 – 31 July 1524) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, active mainly in Rome. While his musical output was small, he was one of the earliest composers of madrigals, and was influential on other early compo ...
, another early madrigal composer, also from the same region. Sebastiano's father, Jacobinus, was resident in Turin around 1520.
[James Haar, Sebastiano Festa, Grove online]
In early 1514, Festa wrote a motet, ''Quis dabit oculis'', on the occasion of the death of the Queen of France (
Anne of Brittany
Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been queen consort of France ...
) (9 January 1514). Anne's funeral was an extensive affair, lasting 40 days;
Johannes Prioris
Johannes Prioris (c. 1460 – c. 1514) was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the first composers to write a polyphonic setting of the Requiem Mass.
On the basis of documents surrounding Saint-Sauveur in Blois, Theodor D ...
also composed music for it. This motet is the earliest datable composition of Festa's, and the first record of his activity.
In 1514, Festa visited Ferrara, bringing some
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s with him; he seems to have been an established composer by this time, as indicated by the reception he received. This motet appears in a manuscript copied between 1516 and 1519, which also contains music by Sebastiano Festa, his possible relative; since the manuscript is thought to have been copied in northeast Italy, one or more of the motets it contains may have been those he brought to Ferrara. Most likely after his visit to Ferrara, but certainly between 1510 and 1517 he lived on Ischia, an island in the bay of Naples, where he served as a music teacher to the aristocratic d'Avalos family.
In 1517 he moved to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and began employment with
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
as a singer, and his association with the
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...
choir was to continue uninterrupted for almost 30 years. In September 1536, he wrote to
Filippo Strozzi
Filippo is an Italian language, Italian male given name, which is the equivalent of the English language, English name Philip (name), Philip, from the Greek language, Greek ''Philippos'', meaning "amante dei cavalli".''Behind the Name''"Given Name ...
, his patron, to help him find a Venetian printer willing to print a book of his liturgical music similar to the ones being printed in Rome by
Andrea Antico
Andrea Antico (also Andrea Antico da Montona, Anticho, Antiquo) (c. 1480 – after 1538) was a music printer, editor, publisher and composer of the Renaissance born in the Republic of Venice, of Istrian birth, active in Rome and in Venice. ...
; he wanted the sum of 200 ''
scudi
The ''scudo'' (pl. ''scudi'') was the name for a number of coins used in various states in the Italian peninsula until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from the Latin ''scu ...
'' for the job, but was unsuccessful. During this era, printers more often demanded money from composers for the privilege of publication than the other way around.
Festa was active as a composer throughout the period, and some of the earliest madrigals identifiable as such, by any composer, may come from his pen and date from the mid 1520s; only some compositions by
Bernardo Pisano
Bernardo Pisano (also Pagoli) (October 12, 1490 – January 23, 1548) was an Italian composer, priest, singer, and scholar of the Renaissance. He was one of the first madrigalists, and the first composer anywhere to have a printed collection ...
, Sebastiano Festa, and possibly Philippe Verdelot may predate them by a few years.
While he was unsuccessful in his attempted sale to the Venetian printer in 1536, a Roman firm produced a book of madrigals in 1538 as a result of the privilege granted, but most of it has been lost. In 1537, a Venetian firm printed a collection of his madrigals for three voices.
An unusual number of Festa's works can be dated precisely, since some of the compositions are topical, referring to weddings, visits, deaths, and other events (some composers of the Renaissance, such as
Josquin des Prez
Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...
, wrote an immense amount of music, almost none of which can be dated precisely).
Among the dateable compositions is the motet for Anne of Brittany; compositions copied in a manuscript between 1515 and 1519; a motet protesting the 1527
sack of Rome; some madrigals Festa sent to Strozzi in 1528 (they were named "canti"); a lost 1533 madrigal to a poem by
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
; music for a 1539
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...
wedding; and other compositions in hand-written manuscripts which have been dated.
A communication from 1543 indicates that Festa was too sick to travel with the Pope to
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, and he died in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1545.
Music and influence
Festa was one of the few Italians in the Papal Choir, which at that time was dominated by musicians from northern Europe. He was a master of the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
technique, however, and his importance to music history is as the one who first brought the two musical styles, the Italian and the Netherlandish, together. In addition, he was an obvious influence on
Palestrina
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...
, who modeled many of his early works after his.
Most of Festa's madrigals are for three voices, in contrast to the other early madrigalists: for example Verdelot preferred five or six voices, while Sebastiano Festa only wrote for four. He liked quick, rhythmically active passages in his madrigals; this may reflect an influence from the contemporary vocal form of the ''
villanesca
In music, a villanella (; plural villanelle) is a form of light Italian secular vocal music which originated in Italy just before the middle of the 16th century. It first appeared in Naples, and influenced the later canzonetta, and from there also ...
.'' In addition, he wrote extended
homophonic
In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that flesh ...
sections, showing somewhat less influence from the contemporary
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
, in contrast to the motet-like imitative passages found in Verdelot.
In addition to his madrigals, published mostly between 1543 and 1549, several collections of his sacred works were published during his lifetime, among them four
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
es, over forty
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s, a set of
Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ( he, אֵיכָה, , from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings") as one of the Five Megillot ...
, and numerous
Magnificat
The Magnificat (Latin for "y soul
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh ...
magnifies he Lord
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Eastern Christianity, Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated ...
s and
Marian Litanies
In Christian worship, Marian litany is a form of prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary used in church services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions.
In the Eastern Church litanies are always a part of the official liturgy, and the ...
(for two choruses, each with four voices). The style of his sacred music matches that of his
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
: he was less fond of imitation and complex counterpoint for its own sake, and often wrote purely homophonic passages. Since Rome was musically conservative compared to the rest of Italy (and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
) at the time, and there was a strong reaction against elaborate counterpoint within two decades after his death (expressly stated by the
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...
), his stylistic bent may represent a foreshadowing of that event; perhaps he was responding to the taste and needs of his papal employer.
Festa also wrote instrumental music. His most famous instrumental output is the monumental scholastic counterpoint study on ''La Spagna'' on which he wrote 125 variations using it as ''
cantus firmus
In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.
The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tr ...
.'' A work which must have been a quite impressive artistic compendium even at his time. ''La Spagna'' comes from a famous "Basse dance" (''bassadanza'') from that time probably from Spain, well known by several famous composers of his time: Josquin himself wrote a variation on ''La Spagna.'' For a long time, musicologists believed that the legendary variations were attributed to another Italian composer called Nanino who lived in the time of Palestrina, one or even two generations after Festa, because he wrote 28 motets on ''La spagna'' and published it together with the 125 variations of Festa without mentioning the name Festa. Later commentators were led to assume that all of these 157 pieces were written by Nanino and this confused the whole research after the legendary study. Recent research finally showed and proved that there is no doubt that only the first 125 counterpoints originally are from Festa himself. What Festa does with the ''cantus firmus,'' a simple melody containing 37 notes, is not only extravagant and amazingly creative. He shows practically all possibilities of counterpoint technique of his time, using canons (even triple canon), imitations, free or strict counterpoint, all styles of instrumental and vocal composition technique like using ''soggetti cavati,'' plainchant paraphrases, retrograde counterpoint, ostinatos, quodlibets, using 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and at the end 11 voices. Remarkable and outstanding in this work, also called ''I bassi,'' is not only the scholastic academical or pedagogical sense but that it can be played on all sorts of instruments; it contains all kind of combinations of general clefs and therefore creates all kinds of instrumental output possibilities such as the ''cantus firmus'' in the first voice and four basses as counterpoint. He experimented with different rhythmical patterns (mensural problems) such as using two different tempo signatures (proportions), keys or rhythmically extremely complex bars with 7:5:3 proportions or other admirable ideas such as using the ''cantus firmus'' in a canon or putting the cantus firmus in every possible location in the texture. Altogether, ideas of a monumental study from a Renaissance genius, a study which only
Fux could reach 200 years later in his ''
Gradus ad parnassum
The Latin phrase ''gradus ad Parnassum'' means "steps to Parnassus". It is sometimes shortened to ''gradus''. The name ''Parnassus'' was used to denote the loftiest part of a mountain range in central Greece, a few kilometres north of Delphi, of wh ...
'' and concerning the outstanding complexity it rather should be compared even with
J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suite ...
's speculative late work. The studies on ''La Spagna'' showed that he also used ''
musica ficta
''Musica ficta'' (from Latin, "false", "feigned", or "fictitious" music) was a term used in European music theory from the late 12th century to about 1600 to describe pitches, whether notated or added at the time of performance, that lie outside ...
'' and a lot of Christian and ancient symbolics (numerology) as well as hidden or obvious symmetrical structures in his counterpoints.
The 125 counterpoints on ''La Spagna'' certainly belong to the most interesting works of Festa and probably even of his time and could be seen as a lifetime work. Even when it was considered as a pure 'scholastic work' with somehow too much use of strict technique and "construction", sometimes rather archaic and with pure mathematical logic, it remains remarkable that he wrote it as a compendium for learning how to sing and compose and to learn about all the secrets of counterpoint mastery. It must be seen as one of Festa's best and outstanding works.
An indication of his fame is his appearance in the introduction to Book Four of ''
Gargantua and Pantagruel
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagruel ...
'' by
François Rabelais
François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...
. In the song Festa and others sing, Priapus boasts to the gods on
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...
of his method of deflowering a new bride with a wooden mallet. Festa is the only Italian among the large group of singers listed by Rabelais, who appear to be a collection of the most famous musicians of the age.
[Rabelais, ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', p. 445-446]
Notes
References
*Atlas, Allan W. ''Renaissance Music.'' New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998.
*Crawford, David. "A Review of Costanzo Festa's Biography." Journal of the American Musicological Society. vol. XXVIII, No. 1. Page 102.
*Einstein, Alfred. ''The Italian Madrigal.'' Three volumes. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1949.
*Haar, James. "Costanzo Festa", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 1, 2005 and January 2, 2009)
(subscription access)*Haar, James. "Sebastiano Festa", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (January 4, 2009)
(subscription access)*Rabelais, François. ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' (tr. J.M. Cohen). Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1963.
*
Reese, Gustav. ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954.
*''The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993.
External links
*
*
A pictureof Costanzo at mid age
*
Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Festa, Costanzo
15th-century births
1545 deaths
Madrigal composers
Renaissance composers
Italian classical composers
Italian male classical composers