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• Festa, Costanzo: 2 Contrapunti

Festa, Costanzo: 2 Contrapunti

sopra il canto fermo for 3 instruments.

These two pieces come from a collection of no less than 157 settings of the same cantus firmus, preserved in MS C36 of the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna. Due to some misunderstanding, the title page of this collection actually attributes the pieces to Giovanni Maria Nanino (1543-1607), a student of Palestrina, and refers to the melody used as “il canto fermo intitulato la base di Costanzo Festa”. However, it has been known for decades that Costanzo Festa (1490-1545) composed a large collection of settings of the cantus firmus in question, and anyway the style of this pieces is definitely that of the early sixteenth century. Two other pieces from the same collection, in five parts, have already appeared in the present series (EML 338).
The melody used here is essentially the same as that of the bassadanza La spagna that occurs in many late-fifteenth century settings, and which even forms the basis of a mass by Heinrich Isaac; it is, however, somewhat shortened, with the 45 or so bars usual in the 15th-century versions reduced to 37, by omitting notes that repeat.
The two pieces printed here are among the most rhythmically elaborate in the collection. While most of the other pieces, including those in EML 338, have an alla breve time-signature, the two here have an uncut C. For this reason the original note values have been retained. The first piece has been transposed down a fifth, to bring it into a more comfortable range for most ensembles. A few editorial accidentals have been added, printed small above the stave: these apply to the one note only. For the sake of simplicity, the original accidentals are taken as applying to the whole bar.