Costanzo Porta

Costanzo Porta (* 1528/29 in Cremona, † May 19, 1601 in Padua ) was an Italian conductor and composer of the Renaissance.

Life

Porta was Franciscan and belonged to the convent at Casal Maggiore. To 1549, he moved to Venice, where he was a pupil of the composer Adrian Willaert. He was next to well known with Gioseffo Zarlino and Claudio Merulo. In 1565 he took over in Padua the Kapellmeister at the Basilica of Saint Anthony and held this office in the following years at various churches in Loreto, Ravenna and Bologna, but eventually returned to its original place of activity in Padua, where he worked on until his death.

Among his numerous pupils Lodovico Grossi da Viadana included or Giulio Cesare Gabussi.

Work

Porta was in his time as an important and influential composer, some put him on a par with Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. He created mostly religious works and was a prolific composer. He composed numerous motets, masses and four books of madrigals. Stylistically, he was initially still under the influence of Willaert, made, however, later on its strict forms freely and developed a taste for splendid and sounded beautiful compositions.

Swell

• Oscar Mischiati in: Music Past and Present, 1st Edition, Vol 10, pp. 1464 ff