Stefano de Maza Gatto also known as Stefano Felis , was a NeapolitanItalian composer of the Renaissance, and the collaborator and probable teacher of composer Pomponio Nenna. He composed madrigals, sacred motets, and choral settings of the Mass. Felis was born in Bari, in the province of Apulia of the Kingdom of Naples, where he became a canon at Santa Nicola. He later became Maestro di Cappella of the cathedral in Naples. He accompanied the papal nuncio, Antonio Puteo, on a journey to the court of Rudolph II in Prague during the 1580s. It was in Prague that his first book of masses was published in 1588 by the printer Jiri Nigrin, and Felis later remarked upon his stay in Prague in the preface to his Sixth Book of Madrigals, published in Venice in 1591. As an educator, Felis seems to have had a profound effect on the succeeding generation of musicians; Carlo Gesualdo, Giovan Battista Pace, Giovan Donato Vopa, and Pomponio Nenna are counted among his pupils. In Pomponio Nenna's first published collection of madrigals, Il Primo Libro de madrigali à cinque voci,, there appear several madrigals by Felis. As a teacher, Felis might have allowed the young Nenna to add these works to his pupil's first publication, thereby ensuring its success.
Works
Madrigals
Harmonia celeste... nelle quale si contene una scielta dei migliori madrigali che hoggidì si cantino, 1583
* Al vostro dolce azuro
* Nova beltà somma virtù
Musica Transalpina, 1588
* Sleepe mine onely Jewell.
* Thou bring'st her home.
Di Stefano Felis... Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali a Cinque voci, 1591
* Caro amoroso neo
Libro nono di madrigali a cinque voci novamente composti, et dati in luce, 1602
Il primo libro de madrigali a sei voci Novamente composto & dato in luce. / Venetia, Gardano, 1579 RISM A/I; F 0211.; RISM B/I; 1579-05.
Il quarto libro de madrigali a cinque voci con alcuni a sei, & uno echo a otto nel fine, novamente composti, & dati in luce. / Venetia, Vincenzi & Amadino, 1585. RISM A/I; F 0212.; RISM B/I; 1585-23.
Di Stefano Felis... Il Sesto Libro de Madrigali a Cinque voci, con alcuni a Sei, et un dialogo a Sette nel fine, etc. Canto. . / Venetia : Appresso l'Herede di G. Scotto. Ad istanzia de Scipione Rizzo, 1591. OCLC: 498809433
Libro nono di madrigali a cinque voci novamente composti, et dati in luce. / Venetia, Vincenti, 1602. RISM A/I; F 0214.; RISM B/I; 1602-05.
Harmonia celeste... nelle quale si contene una scielta dei migliori madrigali che hoggidì si cantino / Antwerp, 1583.
Liber secundus motectorum quinis senis octonisque vocibus / Venetijs, Gardanum, 1585. RISM A/I; F 0206; RISM B/I; 1585-02
Mottettorum cum quinque vocibus, liber tertius / Venetiis, Scoti, 1591. RISM A/I; F 0208; RISM B/I; 1591-02
Liber quartus motectorum, quæ quinis, senis, ac octonis, concinuntur vocibus nunc primum impressus / Venetiis, Vincentium, 1596. RISM A/I; F 0209; RISM B/I; 1596-04
Musica Transalpina. Madrigales translated of foure, five, and sixe parts, chosen out of divers excellent Authors / Imprinted at London by Thomas East, the assigne of William Byrd, 1588.
Stephani Felis regalis ecclesiæ S. Nicolai bariensis canonici liber quartus motectorum quæ quinis, senis, ac octonis, concinuntur vocibus, nunc primum impressus. / Venetiis : Vincentium, 1596. RISM A/I; F 0209; RISM B/I; 1596-04
Sacrarum symphoniarum continuatio diversorum excellentissimorum authorum quaternis, V. VI. VII. VIII. X. & XII. vocibus tàm vivis, quam instrumentalibus accommodata. / Noribergæ : Kaufmann, 1600. Edition: Octava vox. OCLC: 314296648
Manuscripts
Landeskirchliches Archiv in Nürnberg. Manuscript. St. Egidien 53. Choirbook, 1582.
California. San Marino. Huntington Library. MSS EL 25A
