Felix Culpa

Felix Sebastian Culpa was born and raised in Calabria, in Southern Italy, near the site of the ancient Greek city of Sybaris, once famous as a center for luxurious tastes ( today, “sybarite” refers to someone with an addiction to luxury.) His senses-ravaging adolescence which he recounted, but never recanted, was the inspiration for many of his melodies and poems. He often returned to those memories, even though he was forbidden to return to the land of their origin. His sketches for brass ensemble, “The Ecstasies of Sybian” , for example, invoke memories of a summer mid-day* when, on the feast of St. Sybian, the village band would play before mass on the steps of the church (officially called “Holy Innocents”, since St. Sybian was the “people’s patron” and not recognized by the Vatican. Felix was its organist during his teens.) Her feast day, celebrated on the summer solstice, was a day of great sensuousness and pleasure seeking.** Much of Culpa’s music, spiritual and secular, was written in the saint’s honor and, he believed, at her direction. To Felix Culpa, music was the most delicious and voluptuous of all the arts, and heaven and earth were wedded.
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*In the tradition of Sybaris, where there was a “noise ordinance” barring even roosters so everyone could sleep undisturbed, the “day” did not really begin until afternoon.
* * The law in Sybaris before the Neo-Roman Catholic-Fascist reforms was that all marriages lasted one year, beginning on the day after St. Sybian’s Feast, and ending the next year on the eve of the feast. Thus on St. Sybian’s feast day no one was married. Troths could be renewed or not without any stigma. At the time of Felix’s youth this was still the practice, if not the law. Thus, it’s futile to attempt to track Culpa’s marriage record. At times, he was married to Mia and at other times to myself; sometimes, it would appear, to both of us, and most likely to others.