Guillaume Dufay

Nationality: Flemish

Born: Near Brussels, 5 August 1397

Died: Cambrai, 27 November 1474

Specialist Genres: Polyphonic Sacred music, Secular music

Major works: Motets, Masses, Songs

Guillaume Dufay was born as an illegitimate son of a priest and became a choirboy at Cambrai cathedral. C1420 he moved to serve the malatesta family in Italy. It seems he may have returned from Italy in the 1420's to hold various posts in Churches in Cambrai but in 1428 he became a singer in the papal choir in Rome. He returned to Cambrai in 1436 when he became a cannon at the cathedral.

In the mid 15^th Century Dufay was regarded as the leading composer in Europe by his contemporaries. There are around 200 surviving compositions by Dufay. Many of these works are harmonizations of liturgical chants, there are 8 complete Masses, hymns, antiphons, Motets and over 80 songs.

A lot of his works are based on Cantus Firmus, a plainsong melody or a popular secular song. An example is the folk tune L'homme arme (the armed man) on which Dufay based his most famous Mass. This same tune was used by other composers in the 15^th 16^th and 17^th Centuries.

It is said he is the first person to write a Requiem Mass, just four years before his death. The Manuscript of the work was lost.