The 1400s Guillaume Dufay lived in France during a time of changes, wars, and new ideas. The Hundred Years’ War had been fought between the French and English since 1337, so Dufay knew of no other life than during wartime until he was well into adulthood. In 1414 to 1418, the Council of Constance met to resolve the great schism that had divided the Catholic church. In 1434, the Pope fled to Florence from Rome. In 1439, the old Pope Eugenius IV was deposed and Pope Felix V elected; Pope Eugenius IV then excommunicated those that had deposed him. Joan of Arc rose to power, was tried and executed in 1431. Guillaume Dufay’s time was full of conflict, both religious and political, and change.
Early Life Guillaume Dufay was first mentioned in the history books in the year 1409 as ‘Willemet’, a choirboy at Cambrai Cathedral. In 1413-14, when he became an altar boy, he was listed in the documents as ‘Willermus du Fayt’. These references lead historians to believe that he was born circa 1400 AD because of his age at which he would have sung as a choirboy. Dufay received some instruction at the Cathedral. He was instructed under Jean de Hesdin in music before being admitted as a choirboy, and Richard Loqueville, who wrote many compositions, was master of the choristers starting in 1412. Several musical ideas are common in Loqueville and Dufay’s compositions, but that is all the evidence that suggests that perhaps Dufay was taught by Loqueville. It is not known if Dufay was taught composition formally, or if he learned to write music only by listening and singing other peoples’ works. Cambrai Cathedral was considered at the time an illustrious institution: their musical traditions and training were extraordinary. This gave Dufay a certain amount of distinction as a musician and opened up many jobs and commissions to him as he set his own path in the world.
It is not known exactly where Dufay was born, or his parentage. It is assumed that he was born in Cambrai, since that is where he lived most of his life, and his mother lived and died there. His mother’s name was Marie Dufay, but his father is unknown. This could mean that Dufay was illegitimate and only came into wealth and a seigneurial rank because of his great musical talent. The fact that his mother’s tombstone was labeled simply as the mother of Guillaume Dufay, the canon of Cambrai Cathedral, supports the idea of his lack of patriarchal parentage.
Dufay's Career Dufay’s correspondences and patrons illustrate how he was able to be at the forefront of the composers of his day. He apparently was in contact with such men such as Donatello, had extended correspondence with the Medici family, and gained many privileges as a result of patronage from the Pope. Because of these patrons, Dufay was able to command a certain amount of respect and freedom.
After 1414, Dufay is no longer mentioned in any records until 1427. It is presumed that during this time Dufay joined the Cardinal d’Ailly’s retinue as a musician, traveling to places such as Paris and Laon. In 1433 Dufay joined the household of the Duke of Savoy, in honour of the Duke’s son’s marriage to the daughter of the King of Cyprus. By this time Dufay’s list of commissions and variety of compositions made him the primary musician of his time. He became head of music at the chapel there shortly before the bride arrived, and stayed there for about a year. In 1435 he returned to the Pope’s chapel, leaving again in 1437. Again he was associated with the court of Savoy in 1437, but that summer Pope Eugenius IV was deposed and Felix V (the retired Duke of Savoy) was nominated Pope. This put Guillaume Dufay in an awkward position, for he had been supported generously by both the deposed Pope and the Duke of Savoy (now Felix V). By 1439 he had returned to Cambrai to get out of the way of this conflict.
The Chanson Dufay was one of the first composers to use the chanson in the form known as the Burgundian chanson. Burgundian means that the chansons were written during the time that Philip the Good (1419-67) and Charles the Bold (1467-77) were the Dukes of Burgundy. The word chanson can describe a wide variety of things: it can refer to poetry or music for any class of society, it includes repertoire used by troubadours, and is also a type of secular polyphony. In Dufay’s case, however, a chanson is a secular polyphonic song used between the 14th and 16th centuries. A wide variety of themes were explored in chansons, including courtly love and other poetic themes. Generally, Dufay’s chansons were in rondo form with three voices, the top part being most often the only voice with text.
Dufay’s masses were at the forefront for innovations at his time: he was the first to expand the voices to four parts, and under his influence the masses became an outlet for a composer to express himself. The ordinary mass consists of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus dei. These were the parts of the mass that Dufay wrote music for. His best works were his four cantus firmus mass cycles. Written in his later years, they have much in common. The cantus firmus, a melody used as the basis for a new polyphonic composition, is always found in one voice in the middle of the texture and is sometimes based broadly on the tension between duple and triple metre. Much of the time the cantus firmus is taken from the tenor line of one of Dufay’s works, and sung in the tenor line of the new work. Cantus firmus masses are also known as tenor masses for this reason. Two of the masses are based on secular songs (Se la face ay pale and L'Homme Arme) and two are religiously based (Ecce ancilla and Ave regina celorum).
L'Homme Arme was a monophonic melody with political and satirical strains. Dufay made one of the first versions of it in a polyphonic setting in his Missa L’Homme Arme. The beginning of the cycle is designed so that, in the absence of instrumental accompaniment, the cantus firmus is virtually indistinguishable until near the end of the Gloria. The tenor sings the cantus firmus, overlapped by the bass line and other voices that conceal the melody of L'Homme Arme. If this were played by instrumentalists, rather than vocalists, the tone quality of the varying instruments would serve to open up all the parts to the ear, thus illuminating the cantus firmus as well. This hidden quality of Missa L’Homme Arme suggests the playfulness of Dufay with his compositions. The cantus firmus for Missa Se la face ay pale was taken from a chanson Dufay had written when he was about thirty years of age. Structurally and textually it is quite different from the other chansons he wrote, suggesting he chose it for its distinguishable qualities. It is also suggested that Se la face ay pale was written for the duchess of Savoy, leading one to believe that the larger work was also written for a celebration in the Savoy family. Missa Ecce ancilla is the simplest of Dufay’s cantus firmus masses. Almost half of the work is two-part texture, showing great thought and innovation on the part of Dufay to utilize the full capabilities of the style. Dufay also exhibits, with talent, his partiality to uncorrupted canonic phrases in duos. Each movement includes the Ecce ancilla Domini chant in the first half and the Beata es Maria chant in the second half. Both these chants begin with a jump of a perfect fourth and are quite similar in development and theme.
The last, most complex of Dufay’s cantus firmus mass cycles is Missa Ave regina celorum. Each movement starts with the textually and melodically exact same eight bar introduction. The entire mass is built on one chant that occurs only one time per movement, most often presented with a large variety of embellishment and stylistic changes. Missa Ave regina celorum also contains elements of parody, taking harmonic progressions and counterpoint motives from another antiphon, Ave regina celorum. The antiphon (or religious chant) contains Dufay’s name often, in phrases such as “Have mercy on the beseeching Dufay” because it was the work he intended to be sung at his deathbed.
Motets were a major style Dufay also used. Motets are generally pieces in which two different texts are sung simultaneously. Isorhythmic motets were one such type. The isorhythmic motet was used to celebrate people, places, or occasions. They represented a composer’s voice in the public domain. However, Dufay did not just use motet form, he adjusted it and played with it to express different ideas and styles. The motet was a very thirteenth century style, and by halfway through the fifteenth century, it no longer reflected the ideas or cultural values the new society held important. In light of this, Dufay stretched the capabilities of motets by expanding old techniques, omitting some, and changing and expressing different ideas to bring the style up to date.
Guillaume Dufay lived in a time of great change. Borderline between Medieval and Renaissance, Dufay helped to bridge the musical gap between secular and sacred music through his cantus firmus masses. Dufay’s use of new ideas, such as thirds and sixths in place of the common parallel fifths and octaves, generated new sounds. Guillaume Dufay was at the forefront for composers of today and his compositions continue to inspire musicians and composers of today.
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