Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Feo, Ser

(fl Florence, second half of the 14th century). Italian composer. Two ballatas by him survive: the two-voice Già molte volte, Amore (I-Fn Pan.26) and the three-voice Omè, al cor dolente (F-Pn it.568; both ed. in CMM, viii/5, 1964, and in PMFC, x, 1977). A third ballata possibly by him is the three-voice Dè, belle donne di virtù (also in Pn 568; ed. in PMFC, xi, 1978): Corsi, contrary to Schrade’s opinion (see commentary, PMFC, iv, 1958/R, p.27), was inclined to identify Feo (interpreted as ‘F.co’) with Landini, but this is highly unlikely in view of the modest quality of the music alone. In Florence in 1360 a Francesco di Feo is referred to as a member of the fraternity of S Zanobi – a penitential fraternity which sang laude. Ser Feo may have been his son.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

U. Günther: ‘Die “anonymen” Kompositionen des Manuskripts Paris, B.N., fonds it. 568 (Pit)’, AMw, xxiii (1966), 73–92

K. von Fischer: ‘Quelques remarques sur les relations entre les laudesi et les compositeurs florentins du trecento’, L’ars nova italiana del trecento: Convegno II: Certaldo 1969 [L'Ars Nova italiana del Trecento, iii (Certaldo, 1970)], 247–52

G. Corsi: Poesie musicali del Trecento (Bologna, 1970), pp.lv–lvi, 173–4, 202

B.McD. Wilson: ‘Madrigal, Lauda, and Local Style in Trecento Florence’, JM, xv (1997), 137–77, esp. 149

KURT VON FISCHER

Fer, Philibert Jambe de.

See Jambe de Fer, Philibert.

Feradini, Antonio.

See Ferradini, Antonio.

Feragut, Beltrame [Beltrandus de Vignone; Beltramus de Francia, Bertrandus Feraguti, Ferracuti, etc.]

(fl 1415–49). French composer, active principally in Italy. The earliest references, to a ‘Beltramus de Francia cantor’, are from payment documents of 1415 and 1416, from the chapel accounts of Pandolfo III Malatesta da Fano while he was captain of Brescia (Atlas, pp.62–8). From 1 July 1425 to May 1430 ‘D. dompnus Beltrandus de Vignone [Avignon], musichus’ was on the payroll of Milan Cathedral. He was called ‘dominus’ until 1428, and from 1429 to 1430 ‘presbiter’. Sartori interpreted the title ‘musichus’ as maestro di cappella. The departure (apparently voluntary) of ‘Frater Beltramus de Ferragutis’ left the cathedral without a tenorista (yielding another musical designation).

Planchart reports a ‘Bertrandus Feraguti’, called ‘clericus’, in a papal document in the Register of Supplications for 1427–8; this man was at that time a monk of the monastery of S Michele at Medicina near Bologna, but had formerly been a member of the Augustinian ‘eremitani’ living in Ferrara, presumably preceding his 1425 appearance in Milan (Lockwood). On 14 January 1431 King Charles VII of France permitted Niccolò d'Este of Ferrara to quarter his arms with the French, an honour apparently referred to in the text of the motet Francorum nobilitati in which ‘B. Feragut’ supplicates to join a prince's service. A ‘Beltrandus’ was paid with other singers of the marquis in Ferrara on 1 July 1431 and ‘Bertrandus’ on 19 August, though these candidates lack the corroboration of a surname (Peverada, p.5; Lockwood, p.35).

The motet Excelsa civitas Vincencia was written for or after the inauguration of Francesco Malipiero as Bishop of Vicenza in 1433, and is preserved with his name in GB-Ob Can.misc.213. In I-Bc Q15 the name appears over a deletion of the name of the previous bishop, Pietro Emiliani, which gave rise to the hypothesis (Pirro, Gallo and Mantese, Lockwood) that the motet was first written for Emiliani in 1409 and recycled for his successor; but in fact the earlier bishop's name was itself written over the erased name of Malipiero (Bent). The music better suits the later date, with its treble-dominated style, fermata chords and octave-leap contratenor cadences. There therefore seems to be no basis for constructing an earlier phase of the composer's career in Vicenza around 1409.

A payment of 9 December 1438 to ‘Frater Beltramus’, of the Order of St Augustine, shows that he was recruited with other singers from Ferrara for the recently rededicated Florence Cathedral, but he is absent from the next surviving list of 1445 (D'Accone). The appelation ‘Frater’ helps to corroborate his identity with the Augustinian of 1427–8, as does the ascription in I-PAas of his sole rondeau to ‘Fr B. Ferracuti’. ‘Bertran Feragut’ appears in 1449 as a chaplain at the court of René d'Anjou, ex-King of Sicily, at Aix, but he is no longer listed in July 1450.

Feragut's compositions are predominantly preserved in Veneto manuscripts: the Gloria and two Credos are already in the oldest layer of I-Bc Q15 (early 1420s); others were copied in the early 1430s. The Gloria-Credo pair unique to I-Bc Q15 alternates duets in major prolation and imperfect tempus with trios in minor prolation (marked ‘unus’ and ‘chorus’). The single Credo likewise alternates mensuration but not scoring; I-Bu 2216 transmits it in two parts only. All his other compositions are in tempus perfectum. The hymn Lucis creator is common in Italian usage but not in French. Along with an addition by Lymburgia, it supplements Du Fay's hymn cycle, setting odd-numbered verses to the same music above a ‘Tenor au faulz bourdon’. The Magnificat sets even-numbered strophes, each different, with ‘Tenor au faulx bordon’, representing the newest trend of the manuscript. The original version in I-Bc Q15 corresponds to that of I-TRmp 90 (ff.377v–8; not included in Reaney's edition), but light ornamentation and variant cadences have been added in I-Bc Q15, perhaps even by the composer, requiring adjustments to the strict fauxbourdon. Both of the motets are single-texted in song-like treble-dominated style with tenor and contratenor, though several of his non-fauxbourdon works show some influence of the post-Ciconia Italian motet style, using triplets and hocketing rhythmic canons.

WORKS

Edition:Early Fifteenth-Century Music, ed. G. Reaney, CMM, xi/7 (1983) [complete edn]

mass movements and magnificat settings

Gloria, Credo, 3vv, I-Bc Q15

Credo, 2 versions, 3, 2vv, Bc Q15, Bu 2216

Sanctus, 3vv, Bu 2216

Magnificat, 3vv, Bc Q15, TRmp 90

other sacred

Ave Maria, 3vv, GB-Ob Can.Misc.213

Excelsa civitas Vincencia (written in about 1433), 3vv, Ob 213, I-Bc Q15

Francorum nobilitati (written in 1431), 3vv, GB-Ob 213, I-Bu 2216

Lucis creator optime, 3vv, Bc Q15

rondeau

De yre et de dueyl, 3vv (with alternative contratenor), PAas

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LockwoodMRF

PirroHM

H. Besseler: Bourdon und Fauxbourdon (Leipzig, 1950, rev., enlarged 2/1974 by P. Gülke)

F. Fano: Le origine e il primo maestro di cappella: Matteo da Perugia, La cappella musicale del duomo di Milano, ed. G. Cesari, i (Milan, 1956)

C. Sartori: ‘ Matteo da Perugia e Bertrand Feragut, i due primi maestri di cappella del duomo di Milano’, AcM, xxviii (1956), 12–27

E. Trumble: Fauxbourdon: an Historical Survey (Brooklyn, NY, 1959)

F.A. D'Accone: ‘The Singers of San Giovanni in Florence during the 15th Century’, JAMS, xiv (1961), 307–58; repr. in The Garland Library of the History of Music, ed. E. Rosand, iii (New York, 1985), 141–92

A. Gallo and G. Mantese: Ricerche sulle origini della cappella musicale del duomo di Vicenza (Venice, 1964), 20ff

E. Peverada: ‘ Vita musicale alla cattedrale di Ferrara nel Quattrocento: note e documenti’, RIM, xv (1980), 3–30

M. Bent: ‘A Contemporary Perception of Early Fifteenth-Century Style: Bologna Q15 as a Document of Scribal Editorial Initiative’, MD, xli (1987), 183–201

A.W. Atlas: ‘ Pandolfo III Malatesta mecenate musicale: musica e musicisti presso una signoria del primo Quattrocento’, RIM, xxiii (1988), 38–93

MARGARET BENT