Costanzo Festa
Costanzo Festa was the first great Italian composer of the Renaissance, the first to fully assimilate the polyphonic techniques of the Franco-Flemish school, and working a full half century before Palestrina. He was the Italian member of the triumvirate developers of the madrigal, the other two being Arcadeldt and Verdelot. His work was know all over Europe as shown by the distribution of manuscripts and prints of his music, but primarily those at the Vatican where he worked for nearly 30 years, writing mostly motets for the Papal Chapel . . . he wrote over 60 of them. His madrigals are too numerous to tally.
Perhaps, Costanzo Festa was born and raised in the Piedmont in the 1480s. He is described as working for the d’Avolos family 1510-1517 in Ischia, but how he came to write funeral motets for the Queen and King of France in 1514 and 1515 is a puzzle . . . the corpses must have been in an advanced state of decay before the music arrived. But his presence in the Papal Chapel is definitely affirmed by that connoisseur of fine music, Leo X, where the Pope writes that Festa was “in capella nostra cantor” on November 1st, 1517. Festa’s compositions first appeared in The Medici Codex of 1518, a beautiful ms. containing works by Josquin and the following generation of composers probably compiled for Leo X. Edward Lowinsky produced a modern edition in three volumes published by U. of Chicago Press in the 1960s.
April 10th, 1545, Costanzo Festa died . . . the Sistine diaries describe all the singers of the Papal Chapel gathered at S. Maria in Traspontina for the burial of “Constantius Festa musicus eccelentissimus . . . “. In 1554 a posthumous collection of his Magnificat, tutti gli otto toni for four voices was printed in Venice by Girolamo Scotto.
Christe redemptor
The Gregorian hymn which forms the basis of this polyphonic hymn originated in the 6th century, some say written by St Ambrose himself. Festa composed an elaborate arrangement for verses alternating with the plainchant. Its place in the liturgy is for the Vespers of Christmas.
Costanzo Festa "Christe redemptor"
CHRISTE, Redemptor omnium,
ex Patre, Patris unice,
solus ante principium
natus ineffabiliter,
Tu lumen, tu splendor Patris,
tu spes perennis omnium,
intende quas fundunt preces
tui per orbem servuli.
Momento salutis auctor,
quod nostri quondam corporis,
ex illibata Virgine
nascendo, formam sumpseris.
Sic praesens testatur dies,
currens per anni circulum,
quod a solus sede Patris
mundi salus adveneris;
Hunc caelum, terra, hunc mare,
hunc omne quod in eis est,
auctorem adventus tui
laudat exsultans cantico.
Nos quoque, qui sancto tuo
redempti sanguine sumus,
ob diem natalis tui
hymnum novum concinimus.
Glora tibi Domine,
Qui natus es de Virgine,
cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula.
O Christ Redeemer of all,
only Son of the Father,
born before the World began
ineffable to human understanding.
You are the Light, the splendor
of the Father, the eternal hope of all.
Hear the prayers of Thy servants
Throughout the World.
Author of salvation, recall that
once you assumed the flesh of
our body and were humbled
to be born of a Virgin.
This very day is an annual
testament that you alone came
from your Father’s throne
to be Saviour of the World.
Heaven and Earth and Sea
And all that live therein, Give
praise unto their Author, singing a song
of exultation at Thy coming.
We also who have been redeemed
by Thy precious blood
sing a new hymn on the day
of Thy birth.
Glory be to Thee oh Lord
Who was born of a Virgin and
with the Father and the Holy Spirit
will live throughout Eternity.
Magnificat
Costanzo Festa "Magnificat"
Magnificat anima mea Dominum; et
exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari
meo, quia respexit humilitatem ancillae
suae; Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me
dicent omnes generationes. quia fecit
mihi magna, qui potens est, et sanctum
nomen eius. Et misericordia eius
a progenie in progenies timentibus
eum. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo;
dispersit superbos mente cordis sui;
deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit
humiles; esurientes implevit bonis
et divites dimisit inanes. Suscepit Israel
puerum suum, recordatus
misericordiae suae, sicut locutus est ad
patres nostros, Abraham et
semini eius in saecula.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et
semper: et in Saecula saeculorum. Amen.
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Saviour. For he hath regarded:
the lowliness of his handmaiden:
For behold, from henceforth:
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified
me, and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him:
throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm:
he hath scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their
seat: and hath exalted the humble and
meek. He hath filled the hungry with
good things: and the rich he hath sent
empty away. He remembering his
mercy hath holpen his servant Israel:
As he promised to our forefathers,
Abraham and his seed for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:
and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be:
world without end. Amen.