DUFAY, GUILLAUME. - Musician, born about 1400 perhaps in the former county of Hainaut (Hannonia), died at Cambrai on 27 Nov. 1474. In 1420 he received the degree of baccalaureus in decretis and in 1428 he was ordained to the sacred ministry. In December 1428 he entered as a singer in the papal chapel, remaining there until June 1437 (except for a two-year absence, from 1433 to 1435, during which he was a chorister at the court of the Duke of Savoy, to which he returned from 1437 to about 1444). From 1435 to 1437 he was with the papal chapel, under Eugenius IV, in Florence. In 1436 he became canon of the cathedral of Cambrai; between 1445 and 1450 he was part of the musical chapel of the Duke of Burgundy; after 1450 he retired to Cambrai, where he spent most of his old age.
D.’s activity spans various fields, from liturgical to secular, from celebratory to amorous, and his works may, according to C. Van Den Borren, be divided into five large groups: 1) masses and mass fragments; 2) Magnificats; 3) motets; 4) compositions with French texts; 5) compositions with Italian texts.
1) The mass *Se la face ay pale*, based on the tenor of a ballad by D. with the same title, of which versions for three and four voices are preserved, is contained in codices 88 of Trent and 14 of the Sistine Chapel, and has been recently printed (A. Orel, *Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich*, VII, Leipzig 1913, pp. 120 ff.). This mass possesses uncommon merits of uniform serenity which, according to critics, bring it close to the interpretation of the Gregorian cantor; the nuances of color, achieved through restrained and sweeter harmony, no longer have the harshness of previous centuries nor yet the pathos of the coloristic contrasts of later centuries. Its dating may be placed around the middle of the century. The other mass, *Caput*, may be attributed to the five-year period 1460–65. This second mass, contained in codex 89 of Trent (ff. 264ʹ and 265ʹ), is based on a melody very likely taken from Gregorian chant, which also serves as the tenor for masses by Okeghem and Obrecht with the same title. To these two, the only ones published in full, must be added the four-voice mass *Ecce ancilla Domini* (codex 14 of the Sistine Chapel, ff. 75–86) of 1463, of which R. G. Kiesewetter published the two-voice *Benedictus* (*Geschichte der europäisch-abendländischen oder unserer heutigen Musik*, Leipzig 1834, p. 18, *Musikbeilagen*), and the mass *L’homme armé* (codex 14 of the Sistine Chapel, ff. 99ʹ and 103, Kyrie and Gloria; codex 49, ff. 35–54, complete). Other mass fragments are in ms. 37 of Bologna (Liceo musicale), ms. 2216 of the University of Bologna, and codices 90 and 92 of Trent.
2) Of the two Magnificats (sexti toni and octavi toni), the texts, set in full and not in alternate verses with Gregorian chant, are preserved in codices 37 of the Liceo musicale of Bologna, A. X. I, 11 of the Estense Library of Modena, codex 92 of Trent, and codex B. 80 of the archive of St Peter in Rome (Vatican Library).
3) Among the 24 motets published, C. Van Den Borren distinguishes: a) occasional motets; b) antiphons; c) a sequence; d) hymns. His classification is adopted here to highlight some of D.’s most notable compositions. The occasional motets are only two, namely: *Basilissa ergo gaude*, datable from 1419 to 1433, is for four voices and is based on the gradual *Concavipviet rex* from the mass of the Common of Virgins; it is found in codex 37 of the Liceo musicale of Bologna, codex 87 of Trent, and codex 213 of Oxford. The other, for two to four voices, is entitled *Rosarum flores* in honor of St Mary of the Flower and was composed for the consecration of the cathedral of Florence (24 March 1436). It is found in codex A. X. I, 11 of the Estense Library of Modena and codex 92 of Trent. b) Among the antiphons, worthy of note are the four-voice *Salve Regina* (codex 89 of Trent and ms. 3154 of Munich [f. 86ʹ], studied in particular by A. Orel in *Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich*, VII) and the four-voice *Ave Regina coelorum* (codex B. 80 of the archive of St Peter in Rome). D. had composed the latter about ten years before his death and chose it to be performed at the moment of his agony, as he expressed in his will. c) The three-voice sequence *Veni Sancte Spiritus* (tripulum). d) C. Van Den Borren notes in this category 13 hymns for three voices, published in the seventh volume of the *Denkmäler*, but they do not represent D. at his best, since most are in falsobordone and rather meager in artistic-compositive substance in the sense of genius and expressiveness.
4) Compositions with French texts. Of this group, further subdivided according to literary genres, the rondeaux are omitted in order to recall the three famous ballads *Je me complains puissamment*, *Le jour s’endort*, and finally *Se la face ay pale*, a “equivocal ballad,” a genre based on wordplay (also used by J. Desprez in *Je suis desheritée*, which served as the melodic thematic nucleus for D.’s eponymous mass).
5) Of the compositions with Italian texts, the most interesting is without doubt that on the first stanza of Petrarch’s canzone *Vergine bella*, which raises D.’s style to a very high level of inspiration and plasticity of lines in the various vocal and instrumental planes, which in his music overlap and, almost without incisive boundaries, fade into one another. Here the mystical tone assumes new splendor of hues, and D.’s art clearly reveals its superiority over previous and contemporary artists, such as Binchois, Arnold de Lantins, and even Dunstable.
A complete edition, beyond the one begun by G. de Vars, is in the course of publication under the direction of H. Besserer.