Festa, Costanzo (EN)

Festa Costanzo, *ca. 1485, †10 April 1545 Rome, Italian composer. The date and place of Festa’s birth remain uncertain. He probably came from Piedmont, possibly from the town of Villafranca Piemonte near Turin. This assumption is based on the documented place of birth of the slightly younger Sebastian Festa, also a composer, to whom Costanzo may have been related. Nothing is known of Festa’s life prior to 1510, nor is there any information regarding his musical education. Between 1510 and 1517 he was active on the island of Ischia near Naples, serving from at least 1515 as a singing teacher at the court of the Princess of Francavilla, Constance d’Avalos. In 1514, he spent some time in Ferrara. The earliest datable composition by Festa also dates from this year – the motet Quis dabit oculi, written in connection with the death of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France. By this time, Festa presumably already had a substantial body of work and was esteemed as a composer. Contrary to information provided in some of the literature, there is no evidence of Festa’s stay in France, and the composition of a lament on the occasion of the French queen’s death may have resulted from the strong pro-French sympathies prevalent in Piedmont. From 1517 until his death, he worked in Rome as a singer and composer in the Sistine Chapel. During the pontificates of Leo X and Clement VII, he maintained close ties with the Medici family and likely kept in touch with the Florentine circle, as evidenced by the number of his works preserved in manuscripts of Florentine provenance and the subject matter of certain motets and madrigals. From 1528 at the latest, Festa’s patron was the influential Florentine banker Filippo Strozzi the Younger, papal depositary. In a manuscript dated around 1540, Aegidius Tschudi even refers to the composer as “Constantius Festa Florentinus Italus”. Nevertheless, there is no evidence in the sources to support the idea that Festa was active in Florence itself. The composer died in Rome, probably after a prolonged illness. The date and place of his death are confirmed by papal documents, in which the deceased is described as “musicus eccelentissimus et cantor egregius”. Festa was mentioned by his contemporaries – alongside Josquin des Prez – as one of the most outstanding composers. He is also regarded as one of the first Italian-born composers whose reputation extended beyond Italy, and who held such a high position among papal musicians. He is mentioned in the preface to the fourth book of François Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel alongside other leading composers of the period.

Festa’s works clearly show the influence of the Netherlandish style, particularly in terms of contrapuntal technique. At the same time, in his sacred compositions, he avoided an overly complex polyphonic texture. The combination of Dutch influences with Italian elements in Festa’s sacred works gave rise to the style of the so-called Roman school, later developed by G. Animucci and Palestrina. In his masses, he employed the cantus firmus technique, both in canon and in imitation. He drew his melodic material from both Gregorian chant and chansons. In his motets, alongside polyphonic techniques, he also employed a simple homophonic texture; in his hymns, generally four-part, he varied the instrumentation for individual stanzas from three to six voices. The Te Deum, which remains part of the papal chapel’s regular repertoire to this day, is written for two four-voice choirs and features a homophonic texture. In the realm of secular music, Festa is counted – alongside J. Arcadelt, Ph. Verdelot and S. Festa – among the earliest composers of the Renaissance madrigal. Festa’s first madrigals were probably composed around 1525. His early works in this genre are similar in texture to the frottola and canzone; in his later compositions, he also introduced polyphonic techniques developed within the motet tradition. He also composed works classified as madrigali a note nere and madrigali a misura di breve, characterised by the introduction of small note values and rhythmic complexities. A significant proportion of Festa’s madrigals feature a three-voice texture, a technique used only sporadically by J. Arcadelt and absent from the madrigals of Ph. Verdelot. Festa is also the author of 125 polyphonic instrumental variations on the theme “La Spagna”, which for a long time were attributed to G.M. Nanino. These works constitute a kind of study in contrapuntal technique using the cantus firmus. They feature, among other things, strict and free counterpoint, imitative technique, canon (including triple canon), as well as mensural experiments that sometimes result in complex rhythmic patterns. The cantus firmus technique itself is also employed in various forms. The texture of the variations is highly diverse, ranging from two to eleven voices. The cycle contains numerous examples of symmetry and numerological symbolism, and possesses a distinct speculative character.

Literature: A. Cametti Per un precursore del Palestrina il compositore piemontese Costanzo Festa, “Bollettino Bibliografico Musicale” VI, 1931; E.E. Lowinsky A Newly Discovered Sixteenth-Century Motet Manuscript at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” III, 1950; H.W. Frey Michelangiolo und die Komponisten seiner Madrigale, “Acta Musicologica” XXIV, 1952; H.W. Frey Regesten zur päpstlichen Kapelle unter Leo X. und zu seiner Privatkapelle, “Die Musikforschung” VIII, IX, 1955, 1956; E.E. Lowinsky The Medici Codex: a Document of Music, Art and Politics in the Renaissance, “Annales Musicologiques” V, 1957; G. Haydon The Hymns of Costanzo Festa, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XII, 1958; J.M. Llorens Capellae Sixtinae Codices, Vatican City 1960; A. Main Costanzo Festa: the Masses and Motets, thesis, New York University, 1960; A. Main Maximilian’s Second-Hand Funeral Motet, “The Musical Quarterly” XLVIII, 1962; D. Crawford A Review of Costanzo Festa’s Biography, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXVIII, 1975; H.M. Brown Music in the Renaissance, New Jersey 1976; E.E. Lowinsky On the Presentation and Interpretation of Evidence: Another Review of Costanzo Festa’s Biography, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXX, 1977; M. Musch Costanzo Festa als Madrigalkomponist, Baden-Baden 1977; J. Haar and I. Fenlon Fonti e cronologia dei madrigali di Costanzo Festa, “Rivista Italiana di Musicologia” XIII, 1978; J. Haar The Primo libro of Costanzo Festa, “Acta Musicologica” LII, 1980; M. Staehelin Review of the Medici Codex of 1518, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXIII, 1980; M.P. Brauner Music from the Cappella Sistina at the Cappella Giulia, “Journal of Musicology” III, 1984; R. Agee Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXVIII, 1985; I. Fenlon and J. Haar The Italian Madrigal in the Early 16th Century. Sources and Interpretation, Cambridge 1988; G. Ciliberti Una nuova fonte per lo studio degli inni di Costanzo Festa e Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” XLVI, 1992; P. Ackermann Zylische Formbildung im Polyphonen Choralordinarium: Costanzo Festas Missa de Domina nostra, in: Studien zur Musikgeschichte. Eine Festchrift für Ludwig Finscher, ed. A. Laubenthal and K. Kusan-Windweh, Kassel 1995; R.J. Agee Costanzo Festa’s Gradus ad parnassum, “Early Music History” XV, 1996; M.P. Brauner Costanzo Festa’s Inviolata, integra et casta es Maria: a Double Homage Motet, in: Critica Musica. Essays in Honor of Paul Brainard, ed. J. Knowles, Amsterdam 1996; M.P. Brauner Traditions in the Repertory of the Papal Choir in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, in: Papal Music and Musicians in Late Medieval and Renaissance Rome, ed. R. Sherr, Oxford 1998; K. Pietschmann A Motet by Costanzo Festa for the Coronation of Charles V, “Journal of Musicological Research” XXI, 2002; F.T. Camiz Music Settings to Poems by Michangelo and Vittoria Colonna, in: Art and Music in the Early Modern Period. Essays in Honor of Franca Trinchieri, ed. K.A. McIver, Burlington 2003; J. Flosin On Locating the Courtesan in Italian Lyric. Distance and the Madrigal Texts of Costanzo Festa, in: The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed. M. Feldman and B. Gordon, New York 2006; M. Privitera “Un baciar furioso, un dispogliarsi”. Costanzo Festa and Eroticism and M. Staehelin Eine Trauermotette von Costanzo Festa auf Heinrich Isaac?, w: Uno gentile et subtile ingenio. Studies in Renaissance Music in Honour of Bonnie J. Blackburn, ed. G. Filocamo and M.J. Bloxam, Turnhout 2009; W. Odoj Motet Super flumina Babylonis Costanza Festy: “Déploration” na śmierć Heinricha Isaaca?, “Muzyka” LVII, 2012; W. Odoj Some observations on the VatS 18 and BolC Q19 settings of the antiphon Da pacem: Were they composed by Costanzo Festa?, “Hudební věda” LI, 2014; W. Odoj A few more words on Costanzo Festa’s and Claudio Monteverdi’s motets Quam pulchra est, “Muzyka” LX, 2015; W. Odoj Costanzo Festa’s (?) motet O altitudo divitiarum re-examined: New suggestions regarding its source context, attribution and function, “Muzyka” LXII, 2017; W. Odoj Florence, Pope Clement VII and Emperor Charles V. A contextual study of the motet “Dominator caelorum” by Jean Conseil / Costanzo Festa (?), “Muzyka” LXIV, 2019.