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Costanzo Festa'sGradus ad Parnassum*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Richard J. Agee
Richard J. Agee
Affiliation:
The Colorado College
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Extract

In September of 1536, the papal singer and composer Costanzo Festa wrote a letter to his Florentine patron Filippo Strozzi. Festa, having heard about a music printer in Venice, hoped to contact him there through one of Strozzi's agents. He continued:

Have him [the printer] understand that if he wants my works, that is, the hymns [and] the Magnificats, I do not want less than one hundred fifty scudi and, if he wants the basse, two hundred in all. If he wants to print them, he can place the hymns and Magnificats in a large book [choirbook format] like that of the fifteen Masses [Antico's Quindecim missarum, RISM 1516], so that all choirs would be able to make use of them. The basse are good for learning to sing in counterpoint, to compose and to play all instruments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 15 , October 1996 , pp. 1 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 ‘Intendere che se vole le mie oppere cio e li hymnj li magnificat chio non voglio mancho de cento et cinquanta scutj et se vole le basse ducento in tutto et volendo stampare potra meter li hymnj et li magnificat in un libro grande come quello de le. 15. mjsse per che tuttj li chorj se ne potranno servire le basse sono bone per Imparare a cantar a comtraponto a componere et a sonar de tuttj li strumentj’; letter of 5 September 1536, now in Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte Strozziane, Ser. v, 1209, i, 84, reproduced and transcribed in my ‘Filippo Strozzi and the Early Madrigal’, Journal of the American Musicological Society (hereafter JAMS), 38 (1985), 232–4;Google Scholar recently reprinted in Venice: A Documentary History, 1450–1630, ed. D. Chambers and B. Pullan with J. Fletcher (Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 374–5.

2 An appendix to the supplication carries the date of 29 March 1538, and indicates that on this day the Venetian Senate voted in favor of Festa's ten-year privilege, 125 for, 4 against, with 4 abstentions. The document may be found in Venice, Archivio di Stato, Senato Terra, registro 30 (1538−9), fols. 9r–9v (30r–30v), as transcribed by Agee, Richard J. in ‘The Privilege and Music Printing in the Sixteenth Century’, diss., Princeton University, 1982, 208–9Google Scholar: ‘humilmente si supplica vostra serenita si degni conceder al fidelissimo et molto virtuoso, Domino Constantino festa musico, et cantore di Nostro Signore ch'el possi far stampar le sue opere di musica, cio è messe, mottetj madrigali, basse, contraponti, lamentation, et qualunque delle composition sue, con privilegio che alcun altro per anni. X. non possi imprimer, ne impresse vender in questa cita o in qual si voglia delle terre, et luoghi di questo Illustrissimo Dominio le opere preditte.’ See also Agee, R. J., ‘The Venetian Privilege and Music-Printing in the Sixteenth Century’, Early Music History, 3 (1983), p. 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and another transcription in Lewis, M. S., Antonio Gardano Venetian Music Printer, 1538–1569, vol. i (New York, 1988), p. 673Google Scholar.

3 ‘Nota che il superior Canto fermo fatto di Breue chiamandosi Bascia, non hò potuto inuestigare per che lo chiami cosi, ed habbia tal denominatione, se non che; vn dì ragionando io con vn profossor [sic] di Musica mi disse, auertite, che debb'essere vn certo Canto fermo, sopra il quale il predetto Costanzo Festa fece vna volta cento e venti Contrapunti. Cosa che se li Scolari li potessero hauere, vtilissimo li sarebbe à partirli per impararui sopra molte belle cose che dentro vi debbano esser contessute e nascoste’, from Zacconi's, L.Prattica di musica seconda parte (Venice, 1622Google Scholar; repr. Bologna, 1967: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. ii, no. 2), p. 199.

4 See Heartz, D., ‘The Basse Dance: Its Evolution circa 1450 to 1550’, Annales Musicologiques, 6 (1958–1963), pp.287–340Google Scholar, and his article ‘Basse danse’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980), vol. ii, 257–9Google Scholar. Heartz maintained that after the middle of the sixteenth century the basse danse had virtually disappeared (the well-known French dance commentator Arbeau had remarked around 1588 that ‘les basses dances sont hors d'usage depuis quarante ou cinquante ans’; see Heartz, ‘The Basse Dance’, p. 312).

5 In publications from 1929, both Erich Hertzmann and Otto Kinkeldey proposed that the basse danse melodies were simply tenors used as the basis for polyphonic improvisation; see the former's ‘Studien zur Basse danse im 15. Jahrhundert, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Brüsseler Manuskripts’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 11 (1929), 411–12Google Scholar, and the latter's ‘A Jewish Dancing Master of the Renaissance (Guglielmo Ebreo)’, Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects in Memory of Abraham Solomon Freidus (New York, 1929Google Scholar; repr. Farnborough, Hants, England, 1969), p. 355. Willi Apel discussed some surviving examples of the polyphonic treatment of these tunes in ‘A Remark about the Basse Danse’, Musica Disciplina, 1 (1946), pp. 139–43Google Scholar. See also Bukofzer, M., who explored the tune as the basis of polyphonic variations in ‘A Polyphonic Basse Dance of the Renaissance’, Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Music (New York, 1950), pp.190–216Google Scholar. In his edition entitled Compositione di Meser Vincenzo Capirola, Lute-Book (circa 1517) (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1955), xxxvi–lxiii, O. O. Gombosi detailed many of the uses for this melody from the fifteenth century onward, not only as a basse danse but also as a cantus firmus for pedagogical purposes. Heartz, Daniel approached the performance practice of basse danse realisation in his ‘Hoftanz and Basse Dance’, JAMS, 19 (1966), pp.13–36Google Scholar.

6 It seems that this melody was the only tune to bridge the French and Italian basse danse repertories; see Bukofzer, ‘A Polyphonic Basse Dance’, passim; Crane, Frederick, Materials for the Study of the Fifteenth Century Basse Danse, Institute of Medieval Music Musicological Studies, 16 (Brooklyn, 1968), esp. pp.72–5Google Scholar.

7 Apparently Zacconi borrowed the added invertible contrapuntal line(s) from Scipione Cerretto, who also deemed the cantus firmus to be Festa's ‘Bascia’ (i.e. the ‘La Spagna’ tenor) in his Della prattica musica vocale, et strumentale (Naples, 1601Google Scholar; repr. Bologna, 1969: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. ii, no. 30), pp. 293–4; unfortunately, Cerretto did not elaborate any further on the possible origins of the pre-existent melody. In addition, both Giovanni Trabaci and Ascanio Mayone attributed the composition of the cantus firmus to Festa in their own variations on the ‘La Spagna’ tentor (see Gombosi, , Compositione, p. lx)Google Scholar. Rodio, Rocco, in his Regole di musica (Naples, 1609 [colophon 1611]; repr. Bologna, 1981: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. ii, no. 56), pp. 6ffGoogle Scholar, employed ‘La Spagna’ as a cantus firmus for various original canons. Although he lavished praise on Festa's contemporary Willaert, he did not acknowledge Festa's use of this cantus firmus in any way.

8 For a brief summary of Nanino's life and works, see Newcomb, A. A., ‘Nanino, Giovanni Maria’, The New Grove Dictionary, vol. xiii, pp.20–1Google Scholar, or Schuler, R. J., ed., Giovanni Maria Nanino: Fourteen Liturgical Works, Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, 5 (Madison, Wisconsin, 1969), pp.vii–xiGoogle Scholar; for a more expansive view of Nanino's role in the musical world of the late Renaissance, see Schuler, R. J., ‘The Life and Liturgical Works of Giovanni Maria Nanino (1545–1607)’, 2 vols., diss., University of Minnesota, 1963, passimGoogle Scholar.

9 RISM N24, I-Bc exemplar, Cantus partbook, presents the text as follows: ‘Extant tum Constantij Festae auctoris in musicis grauissimi, tum aliorum in eo genere praestantium virorum multa, diligenter varieq; super Ecclesiastico quodam cantu elaborata’. I would like to thank Prof. Carol L. Neel for her assistance in developing an appropriate English translation for this passage.

10 On A2v of Musica vaga et artificiosa, D. Micheli related the incident as follows: ‘non resterò dirui di quell'intelligentissimo musico Sebastiano Raual Spagnolo, il quale venne in Roma, attribuendosi di essere il primo musico del Mondo, non hauendo trouato in alcuna parte d'ltalia alcun suo pari: venendosi alle proue in Roma con li Signori Francesco Soriano, e Gio: Maria Nanino, restò chiarito alla prima esperienza, nondimeno volsero sentire tutto il suo sapere, si che detto Sebastiano Raual, non chiamò mai li detti Signori Francesco Soriano, e Gio: Maria Nanino, che per nome di Sig. Maestro, ciò sentito da me mille volte, con l'occasione che eramo insieme in Roma’.

11 As found in Pitoni's, G. O.Notitia de' contrapuntisti e compositori di musica, ed. Ruini, C., Studi e Testi per la Storia della Musica, 6 (Florence, 1988), p. 155Google Scholar.

12 See the Carteggio inedito del P. Giambattista Martini coi più celebri musicisti del suo tempo (1888Google Scholar; repr. Bologna, 1969: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. v, no. 22), pp. 42–3, 159.

13 As related by Baini, G. in Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Rome, 1828), vol. ii. pp.39–40Google Scholar: ‘Nel passaggio ch'ei [i.e. Raval] fece per Roma, vi si trattenne, non saprei dir la ragione, parecchi mesi: e quì ne' ritruovi de' musici attribuivasi il vanto di primo musico del mondo, non avendo trovato in tutta Italia, com'ei diceva, alcun suo pari. V'ebbe finalmente chi nauseato di tanto orgoglio gli propose di provarsi pur una volta con i due fratelli Nanini, e Francesco Suriano maestri di Roma. Ed egli tosto sfidò il Nanini Gio. Maria come fratel maggiore di Bernardino, ed il Suriani [sic] a comporre estemporaneamente sopra temi da proporsi a vicenda. Fu accettata da’ romani la disfida, e trovatisi tutti tre insieme, e propostisi a vicenda i temi, mentre il Raval ancora studiavasi di accozzare la prima idea, il Nanini, ed il Suriano gli presentarono compiute le respettive composizioni adorne di tanti artifizi, e con tanta chiarezza disposti, che il Raval impallidito dimandò loro perdono del suo ardire e manifestato avendo ai medesimi, siccome quegli vollero ch'ei facesse, gli angusti limiti delle sue cognizioni, pregolli a non escluderlo dalla loro scuola, e per tutto il tempo che continuò a dimorare in Roma, al dir di D. Romano Micheli, che trovossi presente a questa disfida non chiamò mai li detti signori Francesco Suriano, e Gio. Maria Nanini, che per nome di signor maestro' (italics original). Baini quoted D. Micheli Romano's letter as well on p. 40, n. 478.

14 See Gaspari, G., Catalogo della Biblioteca Musicale G. B. Martini di Bologna, ed. Fanti, N., Mischiati, O., Tagliavini, L. F., Studi e Testi di Musicologia, 1 (Bologna, 1961), vol. i, pp. 301–2Google Scholar: ‘Gio. Maria Nanino, e Francesco Suriano di Roma furono da Sebastiano Raval Spagnuolo sfidati a comporre in musica. Francesco Suriano con centodieci Contrappunti sopra l'Ave Maris Stella, e Gio. Maria Nanino con questi centocinquantasette sopra un medesimo Canto Fermo superarono lo spagnuolo.’

15 See Haberl, F. X., ‘Giovanni Maria Nanino: Darstellung seines Lebensganges und Schaffens auf Grund archivalischer und bibliographischer Dokumente’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch, sechster Jahrgang (1891), pp. 91, 95Google Scholar, although he incorrectly listed the call number of Bologna C36 as C35. Giraldi, R., in ‘Nanino, Giovanni Maria’, Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Rome, 1934–1943), vol. xxiv, p. 198Google Scholar, mistakenly asserted that Bologna C36 was in the Liceo Musicale of Mantova. Casimiri suggested 1592 as a possible date for the competition between the Spaniard and the Italians (Casimiri, R., ‘Sebastiano Raval musicista spagnolo del sec. XVI’, Note d'Archivio per la Storia Musicale, 8 (1931, pp. 1–2)Google Scholar, but with scant justification.

16 Much of the relevant bibliography connected to the Roman incident is covered by Schuler in ‘The Life’, vol. i, pp. 21–2.

17 Martini's manuscript now forms part of the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale (I-Bc) collection, call number C36. Another manuscript containing this music, apparently copied directly from C36, also survives at I-Bc as T225 (as listed in Gaspari, , Catalogo, vol. i, pp.301–2)Google Scholar. Gaspari believed T225 to be in the hand of Girolamo Chiti (1679–1759 – see Gmeinwieser, S., ‘Chiti, Girolamo’, The New Grove Dictionary, vol. iv, p. 289)Google Scholar. Nonetheless, owing to the relatively poor transmission of the musical text in T225, all references here will be to the more accurate Bologna C36.

18 See Mischiati, O., La prassi musicale presso i canonici regolari de Ss. Salvatore nei secoli XVI e XVII e i manoscritti polifonici della Biblioteca Musicale ‘G. B. Martini’ di Bologna, Istituto di Paleografia Musicale, Documenti, 1 (Rome, 1985), pp. 81–2Google Scholar, where a full description of the manuscript is given; p. [132] presents a facsimile of the last two pages of Balzani's portion of the manuscript, including the final rubric. Unfortunately, Mischiati mistakenly identified all 157 compositions in Bologna C36 as canons. While Nanino's published pieces are indeed canons, few of the remaining 129 compositions are canonic; see the Appendix below.

19 See Haberl, ‘Giovanni Maria Nanino’, 95.

20 A number of letters survive from Nanino's journey to Mantua; see the transcriptions from the papal archives in Schuler, ‘The Life’, vol. i, Appendix I, pp.345ff.

21 Facsimiles of Nanino's writing may be found in Schuler, ‘The Life’, vol. i, pp. 346–76.

22 See Mischiati, , La prassi, pp. 81–2Google Scholar.

23 ‘CENTO CINQVANTASETTE | CONTRAPUNTI | SOPRA DEL CANTO FERMO INTITOLATO | LA BASE di Costanzo FESTA | OPERA DI | Gioan Maria NANINO | DA VALLERANO ║’.

24 Gombosi, , in Compositione, p. lviiGoogle Scholar, suggested that Costanzo Festa may well have been responsible for transforming the tune into a cantus firmus for contrapuntal exercises, although he never questioned the attribution of all 157 counterpoints to Nanino. He also related that Banchieri had termed the 157 counterpoints ‘opera degna di essere in mano di qual [siasi] musico e compositore’ (p. lvii), but in truth Banchieri had referred instead to published collections by Fulgenzio Valesi, Nanino and Cima – ‘hanno in stampa [italics mine] vn libro per ciascuno di questi Contrapunti obbligati sopra il Canto fermo in Canon, opere degne in mano di qualsiasi Musico, & Compositore’ (Banchieri, A., Cartella musicale nel canto figurato fermo, & contrapunto (Venice, 1614Google Scholar; repr. Bologna, 1968: Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. ii, no. 26), p. 234). No doubt Banchieri was referring in part to the Nanino canonic motets published in 1586 (RISM N24), the pieces which follow the first 125 compositions of Bologna C36.

25 Gombosi, , in Compositione, pp. lvii–lviiiGoogle Scholar, also enumerated the contents of Bologna C36 as I have done here; but he casually assumed all 157 pieces to have been composed by Nanino. Gombosi (p. lviii) mistakenly transcribed a number of rubrics in the manuscript – Counterpoint 129, rendered by Gombosi as ‘canon ad subditonum’, should read ‘canon in subdiatessaron’; Counterpoint 134, given as ‘canon ad subsextam’, reads in the manuscript ‘canon ad essacordum’; and for Counterpoint 151, a double canon, Gombosi correctly transcribed ‘canon ad unisonum’ but neglected the second rubric, ‘canon in diapason’. See the Appendix, below, for a complete transcription of all rubrics in the first 128 folios of Bologna C36.

26 The last four counterpoints in this portion of the manuscript, 154−7, although presumably by Nanino, were not published in N24. Of these, only Counterpoint 156 is a canon, while, unlike the twenty-eight canons in the motet book, the other three use imitation alone. The publication concludes with two four-voice canons that have no reference to any cantus firmus.

27 For general comments on Festa's musical style and technical abilities, see Reese, , Music in the Renaissance, pp. 362–4Google Scholar; Lowinsky, E. E., The Medici Codex of 1518: A Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (Chicago and London, 1968), vol. i, pp. 42–51, 78Google Scholar; Main, A., ‘Festa, Costanzo’, The New Grove Dictionary, vol. vi, pp. 501–2Google Scholar; Main, , ‘Costanzo Festa: The Masses and Motets’, diss., New York University, 1960, pp. 67–175Google Scholar; and Musch, H., Costanzo Festa als Madrigalkomponist, Sammlung Musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen, 61 (Baden-Baden, 1977), pp. 69–147Google Scholar.

28 A modern edition of the mass may be found in des Prez, Josquin, Missen, ii: Missa la sol fa re mi, ed. Smijers, A. (1926; repr. Amsterdam, 1969)Google Scholar.

29 See Haar, James, ‘Some Remarks on the Missa La sol fa re mi’, Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival–Conference, ed. Lowinsky, E. E. and Blackburn, B. J. (London, 1976), pp. 564–88Google Scholar.

30 As indicated by Reese, Gustave in ‘Josquin Desprez’, The New Grove Dictionary, vol. ix, p. 718Google Scholar.

31 Haar, in ‘Some Remarks’, pp. 583–8, documents the long history of this soggetto.

32 Main, in ‘Costanzo Festa’ (pp. 7–10), and Lowinsky, , in The Medici Codex (pp. 49–50)Google Scholar, suggested the possibility that Festa had travelled north to France. In any case, Main attributed Festa's mastery of the art of counterpoint to possible musical studies with Josquin; while Lowinsky mentioned Josquin as a possibility, he favoured the hypothesis of a period of study with another great northern master, perhaps Mouton.

33 See Reese, G., Music in the Renaissance, rev. ed. (New York, 1959), p. 578Google Scholar. Bonnie J. Blackburn kindly pointed out to me that these themes were soggetti cavati. The soggetto ‘Isabella’ is formed in the natural hexachord on mi-fa-re-la, that on ‘Ferdinandus’ in the hard hexachord on re-mi-fa-ut. Gombosi, , in Compositione, p. lviii, n. 1Google Scholar, unaware that these were soggetti cavati, misread the references to the Spanish monarchs as ‘Rosa bella – Ferdinandus’!

34 Schuler, in ‘The Life’, vol. i, pp. 43–4, mentions a lost inscription indicating Nanino to be about sixty-three years old at his death, thus placing the year of his birth at c. 1544.

35 Notice of Festa's death appears transcribed in Casimiri's, R. ‘I diarii sistini’, Note d'archivio per la storia musicale, 10 (1933), p. 269Google Scholar: ‘[Die 10 aprilis 1545] Eadem die Constantius Festa musicus eccelentissimus, et cantor egregius uita functus est: et sepultus in ecclesia traspontina.’

36 See Jeppesen, K., ‘Festa, Costanzo’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. ivGoogle Scholar, col. 90; the reference was transcribed by Musch, in Costanzo Festa, p. 17, n. 22Google Scholar. See also the disputes over the exact dates involved in Lowinsky, , The Medici Codex, vol. i, pp.48–50Google Scholar, Crawford, D., ‘A Review of Costanzo Festa's Biogaphy’, JAMS, 28 (1975), p. 108Google Scholar, and Lowinsky, E. E., ‘On the Presentation and Interpretation of Evidence: Another Review of Costanzo Festa's Biography’ JAMS, 30 (1977), pp.124–5 and passimGoogle Scholar.

37 For this and the other data concerning the life of Vittoria Colonna discussed below, see Patrizi, G., ‘Colonna, Vittoria’, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. xxvii (Rome, 1982), pp.448–57Google Scholar.

38 This soggetto utilises only the first two words of the subject. Based on the natural hexachord, ‘Victoria sola’ may be read as mi-sol-mi-fa (albeit sharped!) sol-la.

39 See Lewis, M. S., ‘Antonio Gardane and his Publications of Sacred Music, 1538–55’, diss., Brandeis University, 1979, p. 589Google Scholar, and also her Antonio Gardano, vol. i, p. 182Google Scholar; see also Bridges, T. W., ‘The Publishing of Arcadelt's First Book of Madrigals‘, diss., Harvard University, 1982, pp.67ffGoogle Scholar; Vogel, E., Einstein, A., Lesure, F. and Sartori, C., Bibliografia della musica italiana vocale profana pubblicata dal 1500 al 1700 (Pomezia, 1977), vol. i, pp. 67–8 (no. 98)Google Scholar; and Jacobi Arcadelt Opera Omnia, ed. Seay, A., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 31, ii (N.p., 1970), pp. xv–xvi and passimGoogle Scholar.

40 The appropriate documentation may be found in Bridges, ‘The Publishing’, pp. 48ff. Edmond Vander Straeten placed Arcadelt in Rome by 1539, but without clearly indicating his sources; see La musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe siècle (1867–1888Google Scholar; repr. New York, 1969), vol. vi, pp. 358–60.

41 The Missa carminum a 4; see Festa, Costanzo, Opera Omnia, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 25, i, ed. Main, A. (N.p., 1962), pp. viii–ixGoogle Scholar. See also Main, ‘Costanzo Festa’, pp.16–17.

42 In Counterpoint 147, each note of the cantus firmus appears as a pair of semibreves tied across the bar. I have not included this among the examples of diminution.

43 In the last section, at the final Counterpoint 157, the cantus firmus does appear once in retrograde inversion.

44 This cadence was already archaic even in Festa's day. Anthony Newcomb advised me that Festa's contemporary, Pietro Aaron, no longer included the octave-leap cadence in his theoretical writings. See, for instance, the facsimile edition of Aaron's, Toscanello in Musica of 1529, ed. Elders, W., Bibliotheca Musica Bononiensis, sez. ii, no. 10 (Bologna, 1969)Google Scholar, cap. XVIII, or Aaron, P., Toscanello in Music, Book II, Chapters I-XXXVI, trans. Bergquist, P., Colorado College Music Press Translations, 4 (Colorado Springs, 1970), pp. 30–1Google Scholar.

45 As noted in a perusal of Festa, , Opera Omnia, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 25, i–viii, ed. Main, A. and Seay, A. (N.p., 1962–1978)Google Scholar.

46 See Schuler, ‘The Life’, vol. ii, passim; Schuler, Giovanni Maria Nanino, passim; and Torchi, Luigi, L'arte musicale in Italia dal secolo XIV al XVIII (?1898–1907Google Scholar; repr. 1968, Milano), vol. ii, pp. 1–30.

47 I recorded 239 instances of notated sharps in the first 125 pieces, and 102 instances in the last 32 – in other words, an average of slightly less than two sharps per piece in the first section to somewhat more than three sharps in each of the closing pieces (any sharp used in place of a natural sign was excluded from these calculations).

48 Although the motet is anonymous in its source (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cappella Sistina 20), both Seay (Festa, , Opera Omnia, Motetti, i, p. viiGoogle Scholar) and Main (‘Costanzo Festa’, p. 39) argue persuasively if not definitively for Festa as its composer.

49 Only Counterpoint 155 bears similarity in terms of its application of accidentals to the Festa motet and Counterpoint 111. A sharp appears in the manuscript at each suspended cadence in the analogous excerpt (bb. 12–25), with the exception of b. 24 in the second voice down, where the scribe incorrectly entered a C2 rather than a C3 clef, thus transforming what would have been a c(#)′ into an e′. Schuler, in ‘The Life’, vol. ii, p. iv, indicated that most of the sources for Nanino's liturgical music usually provide written accidentals at least somewhere in the same chord where an editorial accidental had to be added. Obviously this would not have been the case during Festa's generation.

50 My edition of Festa's 125 counterpoints will be published in the series Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, A-R Editions, Madison, Wisconsin.

51 Durante, S., in ‘On Artificioso Compositions at the Time of Frescobaldi’, Frescobaldi Studies, ed. Silbiger, A. (Durham, North Carolina, 1987), p. 196Google Scholar, placed the 157 variations in Bologna C36 at the beginning of a long sequence of pedagogical counterpoint collections leading from c. 1592 to 1655. Obviously, Nanino's canonic motets, published in 1586, were written at least six years earlier than the putative date of 1592, and of course Festa's contributions to Bologna C36 were probably composed about half a century earlier.