Gasparo Costa

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Gasparo Costa was an Italian composer and organist active in the 1580s, identified in contemporary print as a Bolognese musician working in Milan. In 1581 he is explicitly styled “organist at the Madonna of San Celso in Milan” on the title-page tradition of his first book of sacred pieces, Il primo libro de motetti et madrigali spirituali a cinque voci, issued in Venice; modern Milanese documentary scholarship further places him as organist at Santa Maria presso San Celso from 1581 to 1584 and then as organist at Milan Cathedral from 1584 to 1590. Costa’s surviving output is most securely encountered through his printed collections of the period. A named early witness is his Canzonette … il primo libro a quattro voci (Venice, 1580), recorded in RISM as C 4217. His 1581 Venetian book (motetti et madrigali spirituali) provides the clearest career snapshot in its self-description, and has also been discussed for its cultural networks: a modern study notes that this 1581 publication was dedicated to Jerzy and Szymon Olelkowicz of Slutsk. In modern listening culture, Costa remains a specialist name, but he is still represented in performance through anthology repertory: a madrigal by Costa, Mentr’à quest’ombr’intorno, appears in the famous collective print Il Trionfo di Dori and is recorded on the King’s Singers’ album devoted to that collection, where Costa is presented as active (“fl.”) in 1580–1590. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA Lic

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