A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Porta, Costanzo
PORTA, Costanzo, born at Cremona (1520–30?); studied under Willaert at Venice, where his motets (Bk. I) were printed in 1555 (Draudius alone giving 1546 as the date of their first issue); became a Franciscan monk; was chapelmaster at Osimo till 1564; then held similar posts at Padua, first perhaps in the cathedral, for the 52 Introits published in 1566, are dedicated to the cathedral chapter, and later in the church of S. Antonio. These Introits, designed for the Sundays throughout the year, and a second set of the same for saints' days, were among the first works printed by Claudio Merulo, the organist of St. Mark's, Venice, who wrote of Porta as 'his very dear friend and one with very few equals in his profession.' Merulo's opinion has been endorsed by all competent critics down to our own times, and by common consent Porta ranks as one of the great contrapuntal masters. Arisius, moreover, speaks of him as proficient in all the liberal arts.
In 1569 he left Padua to become chapel-master at Ravenna, and one of the teachers in the boys' school founded in that city in 1568 by the young cardinal Giulio Feltrio della Rovero, who had lately been appointed archbishop and was meditating reforms in the music of his cathedral, in accordance no doubt with the recent decisions of the council of Trent. The school was a success, and Porta had several good pupils, but with reform in music itself he had scant sympathy. Composers indeed at that time were passing through a period of depression. Forbidden any longer to use in their choirs works of the older masters which they reverenced, and had hitherto regarded as models for their own art, they were now called upon to supply new compositions written under such conditions in respect of simplicity and brevity as must greatly have lessened the interest in their task. Porta disliked the introduction of new masses. His mind was 'hostile' to the duty of composing them; scruples of all kinds assailed him. 'I thought,' he writes, 'it behoved me rather to guard from an unjust oblivion the works which the great composers have left to posterity, so apt as they are to their purpose, so full of beauty, delight, and charm.' Accordingly, for many years he published nothing, but in 1575 the archbishop, in granting his request to be removed from Ravenna to the church 'della Santa Casa' at Loreto in succession to Pionerio, extracted from him a more distinct promise to publish some new works, urging him to aim at a style which would make it not only possible but even very easy to hear the words of the mass, and recommending brevity as specially suitable to Loreto, where it was an object not to tire the large congregations of pilgrims in all ranks of life, who came to worship at the shrine. Porta, however, still delayed. Further pressure was put upon him. His word, he was told, had been given and his honour was at stake. Moreover the serious illness of the Archbishop in 1577 may have warned him to delay no longer the fulfilment of his promise. So, at length, without resting day or night, and with great anxiety of mind, he prepared 12 masses, the first six (a 4) of a simple character, and the rest (a 5 and a 6, and some settings of the Agnus Dei a 7 and a 8) of somewhat more elaborate design. The dedication was signed July 4, 1568, and addressed to the Archbishop, who died two months later (Sept. 3). A copy of this work, which must be rare, since certain dates fixed by the preface have not been given in former accounts of the composer, is now in the British Museum. The masses are of great interest, for they belong to the same period as the three famous masses of Palestrina, and owe their existence and style to the same circumstances. Leaving Loreto, Porta went back to Ravenna; for Pomponius Spretus, describing the entry of Cardinal Sforza into that city on Nov. 6, 1580, mentions the performance of 'a delightful piece of music composed by M. Costanzo Porta of Cremona, the first musician of the time, and chapel-master of our cathedral.' To this year belong 52 motets (a 5, 6, 7, 8), from which Burney has chosen the elaborate 'Diffusa est gratia' to print in his History. In 1585 a set of motets (a 6) were dedicated to Pope Sixtus V, from the title-page of which we know that Porta had returned to Padua as chapel-master in the cathedral. In 1595 he was appointed to the church of S. Antonio 'for the second time,' and held this post till his death in June 1601. An assistant, B. Ratti, had been appointed the previous year to help him on account of his great age. Many extracts from his works are given in modern notation by Paolucci, Choron, Martini, Proske, etc. A curious example is the piece which Hawkins has copied from Artusi, a 4-part setting of 'Vobis datum est nosce mysterium' which can be sung upside down. Four books of madrigals represent Porta's contribution to secular music.
[ J. R. S.-B. ]