PORTA, COSTANZO. - Conventual Franciscan, musician, born in Cremona in 1505, died in Padua on May 26, 1601. He was subsequently director, often also founder or reformer, of musical chapels in various churches in Italy: at the cathedral of Osimo from 1552 to 1564, at the Santo in Padua from Jan. 3, 1565, twice at the metropolitan church of Ravenna (1567-74 and 1579-85), at the S. Casa of Loreto (1575-78), and again in Padua, from April 1, 1585 until his death.
Among Porta's copious production, mostly sacred, the following are remembered: Musica in Introitus missorum, for 5 voices, for the Sundays of the year (Venice 1566, 2nd ed. 1588); Missorum liber primus, 12 masses for 3, 4, and 5 voices (ibid. 1578); Litoniae Deiparae V. M., for 8 voices (ibid. 1575); Musica... in nonnulla ex sacris litteris collecta verba, for 6 voices (3 vols., ibid. 1571-85); Liber 52 motectorum, for 4 to 8 voices (ibid. 1580); various books of Madrigali for 5 voices, etc. Published posthumously: Hymnodia sacra totius per anni circulum, for 4 voices (ibid. 1602), and Psalmodia vespertina omnium solemnitatum... cum quattuor canticis B. V., for 8 voices, except for one canticle for 16 voices (ibid. 1605). Works by him are also printed in collections by Orlando di Lasso, G. B. Zuccarini, etc.
An outstanding composer and director, he promoted, along with Palestrina, the implementation of the Tridentine decrees on music in several places. He was also a skilled theorist (a Tractatus de contrepuncto of his, in manuscript, is preserved at the Liceo musicale in Bologna). His polyphony is distinguished by a richness of counterpoint and canonical developments, and by remarkable expressive power.