Dufay Essay, Research Paper

Guillaume Dufay

(1397-1474)

Dufay was born near Cambrai in the year 1397; by the mid-1420 was becoming the most famous composer in Europe.

The outline of his career began to take on greater clarity by 1428 when he was appointed to the Papal Choir, where he remained until 1433

In the 1430s, Dufay is associated with some of the most important musical events in Italy, in Ferrara, Savoy, and Florence.

In the 1440 he returned to Cambrai to take up one of his absentee posts, only to go back to spend most of the 1450s in Savoy, and then return permanently to Cambrai.

He developed a technique called the fauxbourdon, which the middle voice shadows the melody a fourth lower and therefore has no independence, and the cyclic mass. Dufay represents the generation of influenced by the English composer John Dunstable and forming the first Netherlands of composers, flourishing in territory ruled by Dukes of Burgundy. Dufay?s work placed a historical position in the quickly evolving style of the early Renaissance, with his grace and invention of the western music.

Masses- ?Ecce ancilla Domini?

?L?homme arme?

?Se La Face ay pale?

?Ave regina caelorum?

Motets- Nuper rosarum flores, Alma redemptoris mater