A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Festa, Costanzo
FESTA, Costanzo, one of the earliest composers of the Roman school, was born somewhere towards the close of the 15th century. He was elected a member of the Pontifical choir in 1517, and died April 10, 1545. He eventually became Maestro at the Vatican, and his nomination was so far singular that he was at that time the only Italian in a similar position throughout the Peninsula. His genius cannot be doubted, and Dr. Burney, who had been at the trouble of scoring a great number of his Madrigals, was astonished at the rhythm, grace, and facility of them. The Doctor calls one of Festa's Motetti, 'Quam pulchra es, anima mea,' a model of elegance, simplicity, and pure harmony, and says that 'the subjects of imitation in it are as modern, and that the parts sing as well, as if it were a production of the eighteenth century.' Festa, according to Baini, fell in his motets into a fashion too prevalent in his day, of setting distinct words to each voice. The Abbé ('Life of Palestrina,' vol. i. pp. 95–103) explains in great detail the lengths to which this absurd and undignified affectation was carried, and quotes with obvious and well merited approval a rebuke administered by the Cardinal Capranica, in the pontificate of Niccolo V, to some singer who had asked him to admire the caprice. 'Mi pare,' said the Cardinal, 'di udir una mandra di porcelli, che grugniscono a tutta forza senza profferire però un suono articolato, non che una parola.'
The principal repertories for Festa's music are the collections which flowed from the presses of Gardano and of Scotto at Venice in the middle of the 16th century, and for which the curious enquirer must be referred to the Bibliographie of Eitner. The archives of the Pontifical chapel are rich in his MSS., and a celebrated Te Deum of his is still sung by the Pontifical choir at the election of a new Pope. Burney, in his History (iii. 245, 6) prints a motet and a madrigal of Festa's; and a Te Deum and motet are given in Bock's collection (vi. 31, 40). His madrigal 'Down in a flow'ry vale' ('Quando ritrovo la mia pastorella') enjoys the distinction of being the most popular piece of this description in England.