FESTA, COSTANZO. — Musician, born in the diocese of Torino (as is shown by a motu proprio of Leone X, dated 1 November 1517), around 1465, died in Roma on 10 April 1545; in 1517 he was admitted to the College of Pontifical Singing Chaplains, and in the same year composed two settings of the Miserere, for four and five voices (Cod. Sist. 205–206); in 1519 one of his motets for six voices was published in Book I of the Mottetti della corona (Fossombrone 1519). From then on he composed a great deal of sacred and secular music, which earned him widespread fame.
His funeral eulogy called him «musicus excellenissimus et cantor egregius»; more or less extensive praise was bestowed on him by P. Aron (Lucidaria di Musica, Venezia 1545), G. M. Nanino (Contociquentiasette contraponiti sopra del canto fermo intitolato la base di C. F., Mantova 1802), and 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 also its first great Italian contrapuntist who, in motets and madrigals, employed the a cappella style with truly artistic results, distinguished in particular by the expressive importance given to the upper voice, whose effusion, in an airy and flowing song, would become characteristic of Italian sensibility.
Most of his sacred music is found in manuscripts in the Biblioteca Vaticana and in the archive of the Cappella Pontificia (po non) for three and six voices; twelve Magnificats, a Te Deum, four masses for four voices, responsories, antiphons, about ten motets, a Credo for five voices, etc.), and in the Liceo musicale di Bologna (four motets for four voices and Pulcherrima mulier); the printed collections containing sacred music by C. F. range from 1519 (Mottetti de la Corona) to 1596 (a famous Te Deum sung in the Vatican until the end of the last century, in brief verses on melodies of plainchant, in responsoria, antiphonae et hymni), and are for the most part Venetian, Roman, and nociumbighesi collections; they contain motets, a Magnificat on all eight tones for four voices, lamentationes, etc. Burney (v. BIBLICA) published Quam pulchro es, for three voices (1543); Torchi published a Regens regnum for four voices (1518) in D'arte musicale in Italia (I, Milano 1897, p. 49); and P. Alfieri published a Te Deum for four voices in Raccolta di musica sacra (III, Roma 1846, p. 400). Recently (1936), a series of sacred compositions, under the title Sacrae cantiones 3, 4, 5, 6 vocibus, was edited by the Pontificio Istituto di musica sacra in Roma, with an extensive preface by Dagnino. He also wrote approximately 125 madrigals, from 1533 onward; they were printed in Venezia in collections dating from 1533 to 1549, containing music by Verdelot, Archadele, Gero, and others.