Bari
Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
on 20 January 1538;Encyclopedia Treccani Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 46 (1996), entry by Giulia Bondolfi. 25 September 1603), was a
Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
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 ...
, and the collaborator and probable teacher of composer Pomponio Nenna. He composed
madrigal
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 o ...
s, sacred
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, and choral settings of the
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 ...
.
Felis was born in
Bari
Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
papal nuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
,
Antonio Puteo
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
during the 1580s. It was in Prague that his first book of masses was published in 1588 by the printer Jiri Nigrin, and Felis later remarked upon his stay in Prague in the preface to his ''Sixth Book of Madrigals'', published in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
in 1591.
As an educator, Felis seems to have had a profound effect on the succeeding generation of musicians;
Carlo Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...
, Giovan Battista Pace, Giovan Donato Vopa, and Pomponio Nenna are counted among his pupils.
In Pomponio Nenna's first published collection of madrigals, ''Il Primo Libro de madrigali à cinque voci'', (c. 1603), there appear several madrigals by Felis. As a teacher, Felis might have allowed the young Nenna to add these works to his pupil's first publication, thereby ensuring its success.
Works
Madrigals
* ''Harmonia celeste ... nelle quale si contene una scielta dei migliori madrigali che hoggidì si cantino'', 1583
** Al vostro dolce azuro
** Nova beltà somma virtù
* ''Musica Transalpina'', 1588
** Sleepe mine onely Jewell. (Sonno scendesti)
** Thou bring'st her home. (Tu là ritorni)
* ''Di Stefano Felis ... Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali a Cinque voci, 1591''
** Caro amoroso neo
* ''Libro nono di madrigali a cinque voci novamente composti, et dati in luce'', 1602
** Amarilli, ove sei
Masses
* Missa super voces musicales la sol fa mi re ut
Sheet music
* ''Il primo libro de madrigali a sei voci Novamente composto & dato in luce.'' / Venetia, Gardano, 1579 RISM A/I; F 0211.; RISM B/I; 1579-05. (Contains works by Felis, Ridolfo Romano, G.F. Violanta.)
* ''Il quarto libro de madrigali a cinque voci con alcuni a sei, & uno echo a otto nel fine, novamente composti, & dati in luce.'' / Venetia, Vincenzi & Amadino, 1585. RISM A/I; F 0212.; RISM B/I; 1585-23. (Contains works by Felis, G. de Macque, P. Nenna.)
* ''Di Stefano Felis ... Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali a Cinque voci, con alcuni a Sei, et un dialogo a Sette nel fine, etc. Canto. (Alto.) (Tenore.) (Basso.) (Quinto.)''. / Venetia : Appresso l'Herede di G. Scotto. Ad istanzia de Scipione Rizzo, 1591. OCLC: 498809433 (This work also contains madrigals by F. di Monte, R. Rodio, S. Dentice and M. Affrem.)
* ''Libro nono di madrigali a cinque voci novamente composti, et dati in luce''. / Venetia, Vincenti, 1602. RISM A/I; F 0214.; RISM B/I; 1602-05. (Contains works by Felis, G.B. Vannelli.)
* ''Harmonia celeste ... nelle quale si contene una scielta dei migliori madrigali che hoggidì si cantino'' / Antwerp, 1583.
* ''Liber secundus motectorum quinis senis octonisque vocibus'' / Venetijs, Gardanum, 1585. RISM A/I; F 0206; RISM B/I; 1585-02 (Contains works by Felis, C. Gesualdo, R. Rocco)
* ''Mottettorum cum quinque vocibus, liber tertius'' / Venetiis, Scoti, 1591. RISM A/I; F 0208; RISM B/I; 1591-02 (Contains works by Felis, S. Dentice, P. de Monte)
* ''Liber quartus motectorum, quæ quinis, senis, ac octonis, concinuntur vocibus nunc primum impressus'' / Venetiis, Vincentium, 1596. RISM A/I; F 0209; RISM B/I; 1596-04 (Contains works by S. Felis and G.B. Vanelli.)
* ''Musica Transalpina. Madrigales translated of foure, five, and sixe parts, chosen out of divers excellent Authors'' / Imprinted at London by Thomas East, the assigne of William Byrd, 1588. (Two works of Felis are here, with texts in English and Italian)
* ''Stephani Felis regalis ecclesiæ S. Nicolai bariensis canonici liber quartus motectorum quæ quinis, senis, ac octonis, concinuntur vocibus, nunc primum impressus.'' / Venetiis : Vincentium, 1596. RISM A/I; F 0209; RISM B/I; 1596-04 (Contains works by S. Felis and G.B. Vanelli.)
* ''Sacrarum symphoniarum continuatio diversorum excellentissimorum authorum quaternis, V. VI. VII. VIII. X. & XII. vocibus tàm vivis, quam instrumentalibus accommodata.'' / Noribergæ : Kaufmann, 1600. Edition: Octava vox. OCLC: 314296648 (Includes works by several others)
Manuscripts
* ''Landeskirchliches Archiv in Nürnberg. Manuscript. St. Egidien 53.'' Choirbook, 1582. (Includes masses by Stuberus, Stephano Felis Barensi, Orlandus, Philippus Schondorff, Phillipe de Monte, and Jachet de Mantua)
* ''California. San Marino. Huntington Library. MSS EL 25A'' (after 1602) (Contains one 5-part madrigal, "Amarilli ove sei")
References
* Hoagland, Bruce D. ''A study of selected motets of Stephano Felis: v. 1. Stephano Felis, his life and his music. Analysis of the motets – v. 2. Transcription of the motets : Book II; Book III; Book IV.'' / Thesis (D.M.A.), Conservatory of Music. University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1966.
* Bux, Nicola. ''Fonti per la storia della liturgia'', Volume 5 / Edipuglia srl, 1991, pg. 73 ff. ,
* Lindell, Robert. "Music and patronage at the Court of Rudolf II", in ''Music in the German Renaissance: sources, styles, and contexts'', edited by John Kmetz / Cambridge University Press, 1994. ,