Bari
Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
on 20 January 1538;Encyclopedia Treccani Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 46 (1996), entry by Giulia Bondolfi. 25 September 1603), was a Neapolitan Italian composer of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, 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 centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...
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 preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
s, and choral settings of the
Mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
.
Felis was born in
Bari
Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
, in the province of
Apulia
Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
of the
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially 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 established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...
, where he became a
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western canon, th ...
Maestro di Cappella
( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...
papal nuncio
An apostolic nuncio (; 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 organization. A nuncio is a ...
Rudolph II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–16 ...
in Prague during the 1580s. It was in Prague that his first book of masses was published in 1588 by the printer Georgius Nigrinus, and Felis later remarked upon his stay in Prague in the preface to his ''Sixth Book of Madrigals'', published in Venice 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 (between 8 March 1566 and 30 March 1566 – 8 September 1613) was an Italian nobleman and composer. Though both the Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, he is better known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred ...
, 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. ,