Dufay: Chansons

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Cat No: 8553458

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099445825

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: DUFAY

Description
Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400 - 1474) Chansons"He is the most important ornamentof our age", said Piero de'Medici, father of Lorenzo de'Medici, in 1467 ofGuillaume Dufay. The high esteem in which this leading composer of the laterMiddle Ages was held is reflected in the fact that more of his music and moredetails of his life survive than for other contemporaries; the personality of acomposer stands out from the anonymity of history. There is no certain evidencefor the place and date of birth of Dufay, but it is known that in August 1409 CambraiCathedral admitted a new choirboy under the name Willemet, little William, who,in 1414, became clericus altaris, under the name Willerrnus du Fayt. CambraiCathedral counted at the time as one of the richest cathedrals of the regionwith good connections with Antwerp, Arras, Lille, Tournai andthe seat of the Burgundian court in Brussels. Dufay's travels beganat the same time as the Council of Constance, which was held from 1414 to 1418.It is not certain whether he was present at the Council, of which it isreported that over 1700 musicians attended from all countries, exchanging theirknowledge, an important influence on composers of the time, but in hiscompositions the effects of this Council can certainly be seen. Dufay's travels took him in 1420 to theAdriatic coast in the service of the Malatesta family, with whom he maintainedlong and friendly relations. There he wrote the ballade Resveillies vous forthe wedding celebrations of Carlo Malatesta da Pesaro; Mon chier amy appearsto have been written for the death of his friend Pandolfo Malatesta in the year1427. From the same year dates the rondeau Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys, inwhich he bids a sad farewell of his native region of Laon and its much praisedwines and women. Here are also allusions to the dark side of life, with whichDante Alighieri begins his Divina Commedia. From 1428 to 1433 he studiedin Rome, where hecomposed Quel fronte signorille and La dolce vista. In thefollowing years he must have met and become friendly with the composer Gilles Binchois,since this circumstance is recorded by contemporary poets (Martin le Franc, Lechampion des dames). To his knowledge of the highly developed Italianliterature of the time we owe the wonderful programmatic canzona Vergenebe/la on a text by Francesco Petrarca. Numerous contacts with leadingfigures of his time, such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Pope Eugenius IV, forwhom he composed some motets, Antonio Squarcialupi, Johannes Ockeghem, the Medicifamily and the House of Savoy, influenced and enriched his activity as acomposer. The texts of his songs contain very personal aspects of the socialcontexts and political reactions of his time, with which he directly orindirectly came into contact. In the over two hundred survivingcompositions of Dufay can be observed a strong development of elements ofpersonal style, which, nevertheless, point to the common musical changes of thefifteenth century. The
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