Scan 265
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
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1Festa
2Festa, Costanzo. 1490-1545.
3Italian composer, who was born in Rome about the end of the Fifteenth Century, and became a contrapuntist of importance, being regarded as a forerunner of Palestrina. He was a member of the Pontifical choir at Rome about 1517 and chapelmaster at the Vatican in 1545. He wrote numerous madrigals, motets and other music. His madrigal, Down In a Flowery Vale, is a familiar example of the madrigal, and is one of the best specimens extant of the early Italian school of madrigal writing. It dates from 1554, and was one of the most popular pieces of music in England at one time. Among Festa's compositions are several motets; litanies and madrigals for from three to four voices, published in Venice about 1556; and others which are still in manuscript and preserved in the library of the Pontifical choir at Rome. He also wrote a Te Deum, which is still sung by the Pontifical choir at the election of a new pope, and a credo. His first book of madrigals was published in 1537, a four-part Magnificat in 1554 and a book of litanies as late as 1583. Dr. Burney scored a number of his madrigals.
5Festing, Michael Christian. 1680-1752.
6German composer and violinist, the son of a famous flutist. He was originally a pupil of Richard Jones, the leader of the Drury Lane band, and completed his musical studies under Geminiani. Attaching himself through his agreeable manners and winning personality to members of the nobility, he received financial support to pursue his studies, and made his debut in London as a violinist in 1724, becoming leader of the King's band in 1735. He played the first violin in what was called the Philharmonic Society, consisting of noblemen who met at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. As a performer on the violin Festing was said to have been inferior to many musicians of his time but as a composer, particularly of solos for his instrument, which he thoroughly understood, he has had but few equals. Together with Dr. Greene, of London, he established the Society of Musicians, for the support of indigent musicians. He was also musical director of Ranelagh Gardens in 1742, and five years before that had been director of the Italian Opera. Festing wrote numerous solos and concertos for violin, eighteen sonatas for two violins and bass; four symphonies concertantes for two flutes; symphonies for other stringed instruments; odes; cantatas and songs. He also composed a setting for Addison's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day; Milton's songs on May Morning, and other poems.
8Fétis (fā-tēs), François Joseph. 1784-1871.
9Belgian writer, musical theorist and composer, who is chiefly known for his "Biographie des Musiciens," a work, which has many faults and shortcomings, but which, in spite of these is one of the greatest monuments to the achievements of musical genius ever reared.
10Fétis was born in Mons, Belgium, and studied at the Paris Conservatory under Boieldieu, Pradher and other teachers, and gained several prizes from 1803 to 1807. After his graduation from that institute, he was organist at Donai and later professor of counterpoint at the Paris Conservatory, librarian of the same institution in 1827 and director of the Brussels Conservatory and musical director to the King of the Belgians in 1833. His father, the chapelmaster and organist of the Mons Cathedral, was his first teacher, and young Fétis proved an exceptionally brilliant and apt pupil. At seven he wrote violin duets and when only nine composed a concerto for violin and acted as organist. Fétis' first theoretical work was a study of the system and history of notation of Guido d'Arezzo. He founded his journal, La Revue Musicale in 1827 and remained its editor until 1832. He also conducted the concerts of the Academy in Paris. In 1806, Fétis began to collect materials for his great biographical work. He is not always reliable and was careless in compiling and editing the biographies of British composers, but most complete and accurate regarding the composers of his own country, and those of France and of Germany. The work is, however, a most valuable and monumental work of reference, in spite of its errors, is constantly referred to and contains information impossible to obtain from any other source. Fétis was a composer of considerable ability, but his
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