FESTA, COSTANZO. - Musician, b. in the diocese of Turin (as appears from a motu proprio of Leo X, dated 1 Nov. 1517), around 1465, d. in Rome on 10 April 1545; in 1517 he was admitted to the College of pontifical chaplain-singers, and in the same year he composed 2 verses of the Miserere, for 4 and 5 voices (Cod. Sist. 205-206); in 1519 a motet of his for 6 voices was published in vol. IV of the Mottetti della corona (Fossombrone 1519). From then on he composed much sacred and secular music that earned him wide fame.
The funeral eulogy called him «musicus excellenissimus et cantor egregius»; praises, more or less extensive, are given him by P. Aron (Lucidaria di Musica, Venice 1545), G. M. Nanino (Contociquentiasette contraponiti sopra del canto fermo intitolato la base di C. F., Mantua 1802), G. M. Lanfranco (Sciville di musica, Brescia 1533). Recent studies have confirmed these judgments and established that in F. the Roman school had not only its founder, but the first great Italian contrapuntist who, in his motets and madrigals, used the a cappella style with truly artistic results, distinguishing himself, in particular, by the expressive importance given to the upper voice, whose effusion, in the arioso and expansive singing, would be characteristic of Italian sensibility.
Most of his sacred music is in manuscripts of the Vatican Library, of the archive of the Pontifical Chapel (then ... for 3 and 6 voices; 12 Magnificat, a Te Deum, masses for 4 voices, responsories, antiphons, about ten motets, a credo for 5 voices, etc.), of the Liceo musicale of Bologna (4 motets for 4 voices and Pulcherrima mulier); the printed collections that contain sacred music by C. F. run from 1519 (Mottetti de la Corona) to 1596 (a famous Te Deum sung in the Vatican until the whole of the last century, with short versicles on plainsong melodies, in responsoria, antiphonae et hymni) and are mostly Venetian, Roman and nociumbighesi collections; they contain motets, a Magnificat on all eight tones for 4 voices, lamentationes, etc. By Burney (v. bibl.) was published Quam pulchro es, for 3 voices (1543); by Torchi a Regens regnum for 4 voices (1518) in D'arte musicale in Italia (I, Milan 1897, p. 49); by P. Alfieri a Te Deum for 4 voices in Raccolta di musica sacra (III, Rome 1846, p. 400). Recently (1936), a collection of sacred compositions, under the title Sacrae cantiones 3, 4, 5, 6 vocibus, was published by the Pontificio Istituto di musica sacra, in Rome, with an extensive preface by Dagnino. He also wrote about 125 madrigals, from 1533 onward; they were printed in Venice in collections running from 1533 to 1549, containing music by Verdelot, Archadelt, Gero and others.
Bibliography5 works
Anna Maria Genali