Guillaume Du Fay
Guillaume Du Fay
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Guillaume Du Fay (/djuːˈfaɪ/ dew-FY, French: [dy fa(j)i]; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397(?) – 27 November 1474) was a French composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance.[1] Regarded as the leading European composer by his contemporaries, his music was widely performed and copied.[1] Du Fay held various music positions during his lifetime,[1] and was associated with the Burgundian School[2] as well as among the first composers of, or at least a predecessor to, the Franco-Flemish School.[3]
His most famous and celebrated work, the complex motet Nuper Rosarum Flores, was written for the consecration of Filippo Brunelleschi's dome on the Florence Cathedral and is considered an icon of Western culture.[4] Du Fay left behind an extensive oeuvre, including pieces representative of virtually every genre of polyphonic music from his time.[1] His music effectively synthesized a wide variety of styles: that of the famous Missa Caput, the Contenance angloise of his older contemporary John Dunstaple, and the techniques of his younger contemporaries Johannes Ockeghem and Antoine Busnois.[1]
Life[edit]
Early life[edit]
From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of Brussels, the illegitimate child of an unknown priest and a woman named Marie Du Fayt. She moved with her son to Cambrai early in his life, staying with a relative who was a canon of the cathedral there. The link between the Du Fay family and the Cathedral of Cambrai is the sole reason a large amount of information is known about Du Fay's early life, as the institute kept detailed records on all affiliated persons.[5] His musical gifts were noticed by the cathedral authorities, who evidently gave him a thorough training in music; he studied with Rogier de Hesdin during the summer of 1409, and he was listed as a choirboy in the cathedral from 1409 to 1412. During those years he studied with Nicolas Malin, and the authorities must have been impressed with the boy's gifts because they gave him his own copy of Villedieu's Doctrinale Puerorum in 1411, a highly unusual event for one so young. In June 1414, aged around 16, he had already been given a benefice as chaplain at St. Géry, immediately adjacent to Cambrai where he studied under Nicolas Malin and Richard Loqueville.[1] Later that year, on the evidence of music composed, and a later relationship with the Malatesta court, members of which he met on the trip, he probably went to the Council of Konstanz. He likely stayed there until 1418, at which time he returned to Cambrai.[6]
From Cambrai to Italy and Savoy[edit]
From November 1418 to 1420 he was a subdeacon at Cambrai Cathedral. In 1420 he left Cambrai for Italy – first to Rimini and then to Pesaro, where he worked for the Malatesta family. Several of his compositions can be dated to this period; they contain colloquial references to Italy. There he met the composers Hugo and Arnold de Lantins, who were also among the musicians of the Malatesta household. In 1424 Du Fay returned to Cambrai, because of the illness and subsequent death of the relative with whom his mother was staying. By 1426, however, he had returned to Italy. In Bologna, he entered the service of Cardinal Louis Aleman, the papal legate. While in Bologna he became a deacon, and by 1428 he was ordained priest.[1]
Cardinal Aleman was driven from Bologna by the rival Canedoli family in 1428, and Du Fay also left, going to Rome. He became a member of the Papal Choir, the most prestigious musical establishment in Europe, serving first Pope Martin V, and then after the death of Pope Martin in 1431, Pope Eugene IV. By this time his fame had spread, and he had become one of the most respected musicians in Europe. As a consequence, honors in the form of benefices came to him from churches in his homeland.[6] In 1434 he was appointed maistre de chappelle in Savoy, where he served Duke Amédée VIII. He had left Rome because of a crisis in the finances of the papal choir while seeking to escape the turbulence and uncertainty during the struggle between the papacy and the Council of Basel. By 1435 he was again in the service of the papal chapel, but this time it was in Florence – Pope Eugene having been driven from Rome in 1434 by the establishment of an insurrectionary republic there, sympathetic to the Council of Basel and the Conciliar movement. In 1436 Du Fay composed the festive motet Nuper rosarum flores, one of his most famous compositions, dedicated to and performed at the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, featuring Filippo Brunelleschi's renowned dome.[6] Eugene at this time lived in exile at the nearby church of Santa Maria Novella.[1]
The papal court moved to Bologna in April 1436, and by 10 May 1437 Du Fay was in possession of a university law degree. Since there is no evidence that Du Fay had studied law at Bologna, it is likely that the degree was granted by papal fiat.[7] In September of 1436, Du Fay achieved what he had long sought for, a lucrative benefice near the place of his birth. A certain Jehan Vivien went on to become the bishop of Nevers, vacating his canonicate at Cambrai in the process, and Du Fay was given Vivien's canonicate by both motu proprio and Papal bull.[8] Although the law degree was not necessary in holding the canonicate at Cambrai, Du Fay regarded both titles important enough to be mentioned in his funeral monument.[9]
During this period Du Fay also began his long association with the Este family in Ferrara, some of the most important musical patrons of the Renaissance, and with which he probably had become acquainted during the days of his association with the Malatesta family; Rimini and Ferrara are not only geographically close, but the two families were related by marriage, and Du Fay composed at least one ballade for Niccolò III, Marquis of Ferrara. In 1437 Du Fay visited the town. When Niccolò died in 1441, the next Marquis maintained the contact with Du Fay, and not only continued financial support for the composer but copied and distributed some of his music.[6]
Return to Cambrai[edit]
The struggle between the papacy and the Council of Basel continued through the 1430s, and evidently Du Fay realised that his own position might be threatened by the spreading conflict, especially since Pope Eugene was deposed in 1439 by the council and replaced by Duke Amédée of Savoy himself, as Pope (Antipope) Felix V. At this time Du Fay returned to his homeland, arriving in Cambrai by December of that year. One of the first documents mentioning him in Cambrai is dated 27 December 1440, when he received a delivery of 36 lots of wine for the feast of St. John the Evangelist.[6]
Du Fay was to remain in Cambrai through the 1440s, and during this time he was also in the service of the Duke of Burgundy. While in Cambrai he collaborated with Nicolas Grenon on a complete revision of the liturgical musical collection of the cathedral, which included writing an extensive collection of polyphonic music for services. In addition to his musical work, he was active in the general administration of the cathedral. In 1444 his mother Marie died, and was buried in the cathedral; and in 1445 Du Fay moved into the house of the previous canon, which was to remain his primary residence for the rest of his life.[1]
Travels to Savoy and Italy[edit]
After the abdication of the last antipope (Felix V) in 1449, his own former employer Duke Amédée VIII of Savoy, the struggle between different factions within the Church began to heal, and Du Fay once again left Cambrai for points south. He went to Turin in 1450, shortly before the death of Duke Amédée, but returned to Cambrai later that year; and in 1452 he went back to Savoy yet again. This time he did not return to Cambrai for six years, and during that time he attempted to find either a benefice or an employment which would allow him to stay in Italy. Numerous compositions, including one of the four Lamentationes that he composed on the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, his famous mass based on Se la face ay pale, as well as a letter to Lorenzo de' Medici, survive from this period: but as he was unable to find a satisfactory position for his retirement, he returned north in 1458. While in Savoy he served more-or-less officially as choirmaster for Louis, Duke of Savoy, but he was more likely in a ceremonial role, since the records of the chapel never mention him.[citation needed]
Final years in Cambrai[edit]
When he returned to Cambrai for his final years, he was appointed canon of the cathedral. He was now the most renowned composer in Europe. Once again he established close ties to the court of Burgundy, and continued to compose music for them; in addition he received many visitors, including Busnois, Ockeghem,[10] Tinctoris,[11] and Loyset Compère, all of whom were decisive in the development of the polyphonic style of the next generation. During this period he probably wrote his mass based on L'homme armé, and he may be the author of the chanson Il sera par vous – L'homme armé, which uses the same cantus firmus; the latter composition may have been inspired by Philip the Good's call for a new crusade against the Turks, who had recently captured Constantinople.[12] He also wrote a Requiem mass around 1460, which is lost.[13]
Death[edit]
After an illness of several weeks, Du Fay died on 27 November 1474. He had requested that his motet Ave regina celorum be sung for him as he died, with pleas for mercy interpolated between verses of the antiphon, but time was insufficient for this to be arranged. Du Fay was buried in the chapel of St. Étienne in the cathedral of Cambrai; his portrait was carved onto his tombstone. After the destruction of the cathedral during the French Revolution the tombstone was lost, but it was found in 1859 (it was being used to cover a well), and is now in the Palais des Beaux Arts museum in Lille.[14]
Music[edit]
Du Fay composed in most of the common forms of the day, including masses, motets, Magnificats, hymns, simple chant settings in fauxbourdon, and antiphons within the area of sacred music, and rondeaux, ballades, virelais and a few other chanson types within the realm of secular music. None of his surviving music is specifically instrumental, although instruments were certainly used for some of his secular music, especially for the lower parts; all of his sacred music is vocal. Instruments may have been used to reinforce the voices in actual performance for almost any of his works.[citation needed] Seven complete Masses, 28 individual Mass movements, 15 settings of chant used in Mass propers, three Magnificats, two Benedicamus Domino settings, 15 antiphon settings (six of them Marian antiphons), 27 hymns, 22 motets (13 of these isorhythmic in the more angular, austere 14th-century style which gave way to more melodic, sensuous treble-dominated part-writing with phrases ending in the "under-third" cadence in Du Fay's youth) and 87 chansons definitely by him have survived.[citation needed] Of Du Fay's masses, his Missa se la face ay pale and Missa L'Homme armé are listed on AllMusic as essential compositions.[15][16]
Chant settings and fauxbourdon[edit]
Many of Du Fay's compositions were simple settings of chant, obviously designed for liturgical use, probably as substitutes for the unadorned chant, and can be seen as chant harmonizations. Often the harmonization used a technique of parallel writing known as fauxbourdon, as in the following example, a setting of the Marian antiphon Ave maris stella:[citation needed]
Play (help·info)Du Fay may have been the first composer to use the term "fauxbourdon" for this simpler compositional style, prominent in 15th century liturgical music in general and that of the Burgundian school in particular.[citation needed]
Secular music[edit]
Most of Du Fay's secular songs follow the formes fixes (rondeau, ballade, and virelai), which dominated secular European music of the 14th and 15th centuries. He also wrote a handful of Italian ballate, almost certainly while he was in Italy. As is the case with his motets, many of the songs were written for specific occasions, and many are datable, thus supplying useful biographical information.[citation needed]
Most of his songs are for three voices, using a texture dominated by the highest voice; the other two voices, unsupplied with text, were probably played by instruments. Occasionally Du Fay used four voices, but in a number of these songs the fourth voice was supplied by a later, usually anonymous, composer. Typically he used the rondeau form when writing love songs. His latest secular songs show influence from Busnois and Ockeghem, and the rhythmic and melodic differentiation between the voices is less; as in the work of other composers of the mid-15th century, he was beginning to tend towards the smooth polyphony which was to become the predominant style fifty years later.[citation needed]
A typical ballade is Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye, which was written in 1423 for the marriage of Carlo Malatesta and Vittoria di Lorenzo Colonna[17][18] The musical form is aabC for each stanza, with C being the refrain. The musical setting emphasizes passages in the text which specifically refer to the couple being married.[citation needed]
Writings on music theory[edit]
Two written works by Du Fay have been documented, but neither has survived. A note in the margin in a manuscript held in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma refers to a Musica which he wrote; no copy of the work itself has been found. Nineteenth-century musicologist François-Joseph Fétis claimed to have seen a sixteenth-century copy of a Tractatus de musica mensurata et de proportionibus by Du Fay, last documented as having been sold to a London book dealer in 1824. The contents of neither work are known.[1]
Legacy[edit]
Du Fay was one of the last composers to make use of late-medieval polyphonic structural techniques such as isorhythm,[19] and one of the first to employ the more mellifluous harmonies, phrasing and melodies characteristic of the early Renaissance.[20] His compositions within the larger genres (masses, motets and chansons) are mostly similar to each other; his renown is largely due to what was perceived as his perfect control of the forms in which he worked, as well as his gift for memorable and singable melody. During the 15th century he was universally regarded as the greatest composer of his time, an opinion that has largely survived to the present day.[citation needed]
Du Fay is the namesake of the Dufay Collective, an early music ensemble of historically informed performances.[21]
Editions[edit]
- Guillaume Dufay, Opera omnia (collected works in six volumes), ed. Heinrich Besseler with revisions by David Fallows. Corpus mensurabilis musicae CMM 1, Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1951–1995. Further info and sample pages
- Die frühen Messenkompositionen von Guillaume Dufay, ed. R. Bockhold, 1960, Tutzing
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Planchart 2004.
- ^ "Burgundian school | music | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- ^ Karp, Theodore (14 June 2007). "Franco-Netherlandish school | musical composition style | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- ^ Wright 1994, pp. 395–396.
- ^ Pryer, Fallows, Anthony, David. "Dufay, Guillaume". The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Hamm 1980.
- ^ Planchart 2019, p. 143-144.
- ^ Planchart 2019, p. 141.
- ^ Planchart 2019, p. 144.
- ^ Planchart 2019, p. 280.
- ^ Planchart 2019, p. 275.
- ^ Planchart, Alejandro Enrique Planchart (1 July 2003). "The Origins and Early History of L'homme arméé". Journal of Musicology. 20 (3): 305–357. doi:10.1525/jm.2003.20.3.305.
- ^ Planchart 2019, pp. 290–291.
- ^ Planchart 2019, pp. 298–301.
- ^ Dickey, Timothy. "Missa se la face ay pale, for 4 voices". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- ^ Dickey, Timothy. "Missa L'Homme armé, for 4 voices". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- ^ Newberry Consort programme note
- ^ Programme note, with historical content by Du Fay scholar Alejandro Planchart[permanent dead link]
- ^ David Munrow's notes for the recording of the early Mass 'Se la Face ay Pale' with the Early Music Consort of London(1974)[full citation needed]
- ^ Pryer A, 'Dufay' in New Oxford Companion to Music, ed. Arnold (1983)
- ^ Sanderson, Blair. "Dufay Collective | Biography & History | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
Sources[edit]
Books
- Hamm, Charles (1980). "Dufay, Guillaume". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 5. London, England: Macmillan Publishers. p. 674. ISBN 978-1-56159-174-9.
- Planchart, Alejandro Enrique (2019). Guillaume Du Fay - The Life and Works. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107166158.
Journal and encyclopedia articles
- Wright, Craig (1994). "Dufay's "Nuper rosarum flores", King Solomon's Temple, and the Veneration of the Virgin". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 47 (3): 395–427, 429–441. doi:10.2307/3128798. JSTOR 3128798.
- Planchart, Alejandro Enrique (2004) [2001]. "Du Fay [Dufay; Du Fayt], Guillaume". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08268. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
Further reading[edit]
- Abraham, Gerald; Hughes, Dom Anselm, eds. (1960). Ars Nova and the Renaissance. The New Oxford History of Music. Vol. III (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-316303-4.
- Boone, Graeme MacDonald (1987). Dufay's Early Chansons: Chronology and Style in the Manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canonici Misc. 213 (Thesis). Cambridge: Harvard University. OCLC 606319163.
- Bukofzer, Manfred F. (1950). Studies in medieval & Renaissance music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-00241-6.
- Fallows, David (1987) [1982]. Dufay. The Master Musicians Series (revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-460-02493-8.
- Gallo, F. Alberto (1985). Music of the Middle Ages II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-28483-7.
- Gleason, Harold; Becker, Warren (1981). Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Music Literature Outlines (3rd ed.). Frangipani Press. ISBN 978-0-88284-379-7.
- Hamm, Charles Edward (1962). "Dating a Group of Dufay Works". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 15 (1): 65–71. doi:10.2307/830055. JSTOR 830055.
- Hamm, Charles Edward (2015). Chronology of the Works of Guillaume Dufay. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7698-3.
- Kim, Mi-Ock (1990). The Emergence of Harmonic Tonality in Dufay's Songs (Thesis). East Lansing: Michigan State University. OCLC 215004828.
- Lockwood, Lewis (2009). Music in Renaissance Ferrara 1400-1505: The Creation of a Musical Center in the Fifteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-970300-5.
- Blackburn, Bonnie J.; Miller, Clement Albin; Lowinsky, Edward Elias, eds. (1991). A Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-315153-6.
- Moll, Kevin N., ed. (2014). Counterpoint and Compositional Process in the Time of Dufay: Perspectives from German Musicology. Oxford: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-61733-2.
- Plamenac, Dragan (1954). "An Unknown Composition by Dufay?". The Musical Quarterly. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 40 (2): 190–200. doi:10.1093/mq/XL.2.190. JSTOR 739670.
- Planchart, Alejandro (1993). "The Early Career of Guillaume Du Fay". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 46 (3): 341–368. doi:10.2307/831925. JSTOR 831925.
- Reese, Gustave (1959) [1954]. Music in the Renaissance (revised ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-09530-2.
- Strohm, Reinhard (2005). The Rise of European Music, 1380-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-61934-9.
- Wright, Craig (1975). "Dufay at Cambrai: Discoveries and Revisions". Journal of the American Musicological Society. University of California Press. 28 (2): 175–229. doi:10.2307/830766. JSTOR 830766.
External links[edit]
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guillaume Dufay. |
- Free scores by Guillaume Du Fay at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Free scores by Guillaume Du Fay in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- List of compositions by Guillaume Du Fay at the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
- Free pdfs of New Du Fay edition by Alejandro Planchart downloadable from Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
- Ave Regina Caelorum, the score at the classicaland.com
- Hear The Hilliard Ensemble perform Dufay's Moribus et genere; Vergene bella and Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae in London, 25 September 2010
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