Costanzo Porta
Costanzo Porta (1528 or 1529 – 19 May 1601) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance, and a representative of what is known today as the Venetian School. He was highly praised throughout his life both as a composer and a teacher, and had a reputation especially as an expert contrapuntist.[1]
Biography
Porta was born in
Style
Most of Porta's output is sacred music, especially motets. He published at least eight books of motets, one of which is known to be lost, as well as books of masses, introits, and a huge cycle of hymns for Vespers.
Porta's music is even more polyphonic than that of Gombert, and he showed a liking for academic, even severe contrapuntal devices, although they are used so skillfully that the text can always be clearly understood. Often his music uses strict canons; one motet from his book of 52 motets from 1580, in seven voices, has no less than four of the voices entirely derived canonically. Another motet from this same book is a mensuration canon, that most difficult of all contrapuntal forms to carry off. While many composers were reacting to the strictures of the Council of Trent against excessive polyphonic practice, Porta evidently felt unobliged to follow them; perhaps he had sufficient confidence in his skill in conveying the text. His music is as carefully controlled as that of Palestrina, with cautious use of dissonance and chromaticism, while displaying polyphonic virtuosity to a degree uncommon in other composers of sacred music at the end of the 16th century.
Some of the later motets use
Porta also wrote
Notes
- ^ Lilian P. Pruett, Grove online
Sources
- ISBN 0-393-09530-4.
- "Costanzo Porta". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers. 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2.
- Lillian Pruett: "Costanzo Porta", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 5, 2007), (subscription access) Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Free scores by Costanzo Porta in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Free scores by Costanzo Porta at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Recercare sopra ut re mi fa sol la: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9e2OfcWa48E