Music #304 - Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay 
- aka Guillaume Du Fay
(1397 – 1474)

A Franco-Flemish (or Netherlandish) composer, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the early Renaissance.  

He usually worked in churches in/around Cambrai (in present-day northern France), or served powerful families in Italy. Younger composers frequented Cambrai for his advice. 

Many of his works are based on pre-existing melody (cantus firmus) - either a plainsong melody or a popular secular tune. For example, his most famous Mass was based on the folk song L'homme armé.


Mass:

Missa 'L'homme armé' / 

The Armed Man Mass

Click here to watch a 46-minute full version.

Plainsong / Chant:

Ave Maris Stella / 

Hail, star of the ocean

(a setting of Marian antiphon 

- hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary)

(portion of setting in fauxbourdon - false bass)

Nuper rosarum flores /

The Rose Blossoms Recently

- a motet composed for the 1436 consecration of the Florence Cathedral, on the occasion of the completion of the dome built under the instructions of Brunelleschi.

Most of Dufay's secular songs follow the fixed forms (ballade, rondeau, and virelai); he also wrote a handful of Italian ballate (most similar to virelai).

Ballade:

Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye / 

Resvellies cheer you and make lye

Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys / 

Farewell to the Fine Wines of Laonnais

Rondeau (for 3 voices):

Mon bien, m'amour et ma maitresse / 

My good, my love and my mistress

with French lyrics in the footnote

Italian ballata:

Se la face ay pale / 

If the face ay pale