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72-677: The main names associated with this school are Guillaume Dufay , Gilles Binchois , Antoine Busnois and (as an influence), the English composer John Dunstaple . The Burgundian School was the first phase of activity of the Franco-Flemish School , the central musical practice of the Renaissance in Europe. In late Medieval and early Renaissance Europe, cultural centers tended to move from one place to another due to changing political stability and

144-421: A Requiem mass around 1460, which is lost. After an illness of several weeks, Du Fay died on 27 November 1474. He had requested that his motet Ave regina celorum be sung for him at his deathbed, but time was insufficient for this to be arranged. Instead, his now-lost Requiem Mass was performed during his funeral service. Du Fay was buried in the chapel of St. Étienne in the cathedral of Cambrai; his portrait

216-420: A 'cosmopolitan style' and an extensive oeuvre which included representatives of virtually every polyphonic genre of his time. Like Binchois, Du Fay was deeply influenced by the contenance angloise style of John Dunstaple , and synthesized it with a wide variety of other styles, including that of the famous Missa Caput , and the techniques of his younger contemporaries, Ockeghem and Busnois. Du Fay's life

288-505: A benefice. To his right, three soldiers and an angel observe the resurrected Christ. The art historian Ludovic Nys has suggested it was based on a c.  1460 woodcut from Florence, though the art historian Douglas Brine has not found this convincing. Before Du Fay's time, the concept of a ' composer '—that is, a musician whose primary occupation is composition —was largely unfamiliar in Europe. The emergence of musicians who focused on composition above other musical endeavors arose in

360-464: A characteristic which itself defines the Burgundian epoch as a Renaissance phenomenon. This migration of musical culture east from Paris to Burgundy also corresponds with the conventional (and by no means universally accepted) division of music history into Medieval and Renaissance ; while Guillaume de Machaut is often considered to be one of the last Medieval composers, Dufay is often considered to be

432-433: A large tradition of 'composer-theorists', including Johannes Ciconia , Franchinus Gaffurius and Tinctoris, among others. It is possible that these documents are the same treatise, and the references to Musica were shorthand for the work seen by Fétis. Alternatively, Rossi notes that Fétis spoke specifically of a treatise influenced by Du Fay, which may not necessarily mean he was its author. Rossi, however, contends that

504-524: A relative who was a canon of the cathedral there. The link between the Du Fay family and the Cathedral of Cambrai is the sole reason a large amount of information is known about Du Fay's early life, as the institute kept detailed records on all affiliated persons. His musical gifts were noticed by the cathedral authorities, who evidently gave him a thorough training in music; he studied with Rogier de Hesdin during

576-436: A sixteenth-century copy of a treatise ascribed to Du Fay, entitled Tractatus de musica mensurata et de proportionibus ('A Treatise on Measured Music and Proportions'). It was last documented as having been sold to a London book dealer in 1824. The testimony from Fétis remains problematic, as nothing of it is known aside from its name, making it impossible reconstruct. If Du Fay did indeed write these works, he would be among

648-442: A texture dominated by the highest voice; the other two voices, unsupplied with text, were probably played by instruments. Occasionally Du Fay used four voices, but in a number of these songs the fourth voice was supplied by a later, usually anonymous, composer. Typically he used the rondeau form when writing love songs. His latest secular songs show influence from Busnois and Ockeghem, and the rhythmic and melodic differentiation between

720-793: A time, Flanders , Brabant , Holland , Luxembourg , Alsace and Lorraine . Especially during the reigns of Philip the Good (1419–1467) and Charles the Bold (1467–1477), this entire area, loosely known as Burgundy, was a center of musical creativity. Most of the musical activity did not take place in what is modern-day Burgundy, which has its capital in Dijon (even though the Dukes of Burgundy maintained an administrative center there). The main centers of music-making were Brussels , Bruges , Lille , and Arras , as well as smaller towns in that same general area. Musicians from

792-429: Is "more diversified than that of any composer since Machaut". Du Fay was one of the last composers to make use of late-medieval polyphonic structural techniques such as isorhythm , and one of the first to employ the more mellifluous harmonies, phrasing and melodies characteristic of the early Renaissance. His compositions within the larger genres (masses, motets and chansons) are mostly similar to each other; his renown

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864-513: Is among the best-documented composers of his time, Du Fay's birth and family is shrouded with uncertainty, though he was probably the illegitimate child of a priest. He was educated at Cambrai Cathedral , where his teachers included Nicolas Grenon and Richard Loqueville , among others. For the next decade, Du Fay worked throughout Europe: as a subdeacon in Cambrai, under Carlo I Malatesta in Rimini , for

936-482: Is better documented than "almost any other [European] composer of the 15th century". The reasons for this are numerous, but especially informative are the thorough record keeping of the institutions he associated with and the many biographical or historical anecdotes integrated in his compositions. In addition, while records from many northern French cathedrals were either lost or destroyed, those from Cambrai Cathedral remain extant. Modern scholarship generally spells

1008-558: Is largely due to what was perceived as his perfect control of the forms in which he worked, as well as his gift for memorable and singable melody. During the 15th century he was universally regarded as the greatest composer of his time, an opinion that has largely survived to the present day. Du Fay is the namesake of the Dufay Collective , an early music ensemble of historically informed performances . Nicolas Grenon Nicolas Grenon ( c.  1375 – October 17, 1456)

1080-407: Is the most up-to-date, and includes examples of each of the prevailing formes fixes , the ballade , the virelai , and the rondeau . The melody is always in the topmost voice, and all are for three voices. The motets by Grenon are unusual in their use of strict isorhythmic technique, usually in all voices. In some aspects they are similar to motets of Dufay, except for the strictness of

1152-626: The Council of Basel . By 1435 he was again in the service of the papal chapel, but this time it was in Florence – Pope Eugene having been driven from Rome in 1434 by the establishment of an insurrectionary republic there, sympathetic to the Council of Basel and the Conciliar movement . In 1436 Du Fay composed the festive motet Nuper rosarum flores , one of his most famous compositions, dedicated to and performed at

1224-612: The Este family in Ferrara , some of the most important musical patrons of the Renaissance, and with which he probably had become acquainted during the days of his association with the Malatesta family; Rimini and Ferrara are not only geographically close, but the two families were related by marriage, and Du Fay composed at least one ballade for Niccolò III, Marquis of Ferrara . In 1437 Du Fay visited

1296-604: The House of Malatesta in Pesaro , and under Louis Aleman in Bologna, where he was ordained priest. As his fame began to spread, he settled in Rome in 1428 as musician of the prestigious papal choir, first under Pope Martin V and then Pope Eugene IV , where he wrote the motets Balsamus et munda cera , Ecclesie militantis and Supremum est mortalibus . Amid Rome's financial and political disorder in

1368-498: The Malatesta family. Several of his compositions can be dated to this period; they contain colloquial references to Italy. There he met the composers Hugo and Arnold de Lantins , who were also among the musicians of the Malatesta household. In 1424 Du Fay returned to Cambrai, because of the illness and subsequent death of the relative with whom his mother was staying. By 1426, however, he had returned to Italy. In Bologna , he entered

1440-600: The Missa L'Homme armé and the Missa Se la face ay pale . During his final years in Cambrai, Du Fay wrote his now-lost requiem and both met and influenced the leading musicians of his time, including Antoine Busnois , Loyset Compère , Johannes Tinctoris and particularly, Johannes Ockeghem . Du Fay has been described as leading the first generation of European musicians who were primarily considered ' composers ' by occupation. His erratic career took him throughout Western Europe, forming

1512-486: The 1430s, Du Fay took a leave of absence from the choir to serve Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy . Du Fay returned to Italy in 1436, writing his most admired work, the complex motet Nuper Rosarum Flores , which celebrated the consecration of Filippo Brunelleschi 's dome for the Florence Cathedral . He later joined the recently-moved papal court in Bologna, and was associated with the House of Este in Ferrara . For

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1584-474: The 1440s, and during this time he was also in the service of the Duke of Burgundy. While in Cambrai he collaborated with Nicolas Grenon on a complete revision of the liturgical musical collection of the cathedral, which included writing an extensive collection of polyphonic music for services. In addition to his musical work, he was active in the general administration of the cathedral. In 1444 his mother Marie died, and

1656-462: The 15th century, and was exemplified by Du Fay. Due to their mutual importance, Du Fay and Binchois have been grouped together since their lifetimes. The musicologist Reinhard Strohm considers this misleading, noting that that while Binchois "earned his enormous reputation in the one genre in which he excelled as a composer, performer and possibly even poet, Du Fay's creativity unfolded along many more musical lines". He furthers that Du Fay's oeuvre

1728-542: The Burgundian school in particular. Most of Du Fay's secular songs follow the formes fixes ( rondeau , ballade, and virelai), which dominated secular European music of the 14th and 15th centuries. He also wrote a handful of Italian ballate , almost certainly while he was in Italy. As is the case with his motets, many of the songs were written for specific occasions, and many are datable, thus supplying useful biographical information. Most of his songs are for three voices, using

1800-520: The Burgundians were the four formes fixes ( rondeau , ballade , virelai , and bergerette ), all generically known as chansons . Of the four, the rondeau was by far the most popular; at any rate more rondeaux have survived than any other form. Most of the rondeaux were in three voices, and in French, though there are a few in other languages. In most of the rondeaux, the uppermost voice (the "superius")

1872-494: The Church began to heal, and Du Fay once again left Cambrai for points south. He went to Turin in 1450, shortly before the death of Duke Amédée, but returned to Cambrai later that year; and in 1452 he went back to Savoy yet again. This time he did not return to Cambrai for six years, and during that time he attempted to find either a benefice or an employment which would allow him to stay in Italy. Numerous compositions, including one of

1944-587: The Fearless (Duke of Burgundy). In 1419 he returned to Cambrai, and from 1425 to 1427 worked in Rome as the master of the choirboys in the papal chapel under Pope Martin V . He retired to Cambrai, where in the 1440s he worked with Guillaume Dufay on a complete revision of the polyphonic liturgical music of the cathedral. He died in Cambrai in 1456 after an unusually long life. Grenon's music shows aspects of both medieval and early Renaissance practice. His secular music

2016-585: The French court and the Habsburgs were patrons of music; however, a French style began to diverge from that of the Low Countries, especially in secular music, and in the period after 1500. The history of Burgundian music began with the organization of the chapel in 1384; twenty years later, it rivaled the famous establishment at Avignon in splendor. Names associated with this early phase of Burgundian music include Johannes Tapissier and Nicolas Grenon , who carried

2088-560: The area of sacred music, and rondeaux , ballades , virelais and a few other chanson types within the realm of secular music. None of his surviving music is specifically instrumental, although instruments were certainly used for some of his secular music. Seven complete Masses, 28 individual Mass movements, 15 settings of chant used in Mass propers, three Magnificats, two Benedicamus Domino settings, 15 antiphon settings (six of them Marian antiphons ), 27 hymns, 22 motets (13 of these isorhythmic in

2160-503: The cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, featuring Filippo Brunelleschi 's renowned dome. Eugene at this time lived in exile at the nearby church of Santa Maria Novella. The papal court moved to Bologna in April 1436, and by 10 May 1437 Du Fay was in possession of a university law degree. Since there is no evidence that Du Fay had studied law at Bologna, it is likely that the degree

2232-506: The composer altered the spelling while active in Italy. Documents from the composer's early years in Cambrai sometimes spelled his first name as Willaume, or a related form such as Willermus, Willem or Wilhelm. From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel , in the vicinity of Brussels , the illegitimate child of an unknown priest and a woman named Marie Du Fayt. She moved with her son to Cambrai early in his life, staying with

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2304-423: The composer's surname as two words, 'Du Fay'. Before the late 20th century, however, spelling the name as single word—'Dufay'—was much more common. Archival discoveries from this period revealed that the surname was usually spelled as two words in documents of the 14th and 15th century, contrary to musical sources of that time. It seems that Du Fay's parents spelt their surname as 'Du Fayt', but for unknown reasons

2376-561: The court or the region of Burgundy but were interlinked by adjacent geography and by common musical practice, included such names as Johannes Ockeghem , Jacob Obrecht , Josquin des Prez , Adrian Willaert and Orlandus Lassus . There are approximately 65 manuscript sources which contain music by Burgundian composers. The most prominent of these include: Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( / dj uː ˈ f aɪ / dyoo- FEYE , French: [ɡijom dy fa(j)i] ; also Dufay , Du Fayt ; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474)

2448-483: The dance would be immediately followed by a quick dance, the tordion or pas de Brabant . The Burgundian School was the first generation of what is sometimes known as the Netherlands School , several generations of composers spanning 150 years who composed in the polyphonic style associated with the mainstream of Renaissance practice. Later generations, which were no longer specifically associated with either

2520-443: The death of Dufay in 1474, the most prominent Burgundian musician was Antoine Busnois , who was also a prolific composer of chansons, and who possibly wrote the famous L'homme armé tune. Burgundian composers favored secular forms, at least while they worked in Burgundian lands; much sacred music survives, especially from those composers who spent time in Italy, for example in the papal choir. The most prominent secular forms used by

2592-526: The death of his brother moved to a job at the St Sépulchre as a canon . He rose in the ecclesiastical hierarchy at St Sépulchre, and then left Paris, moving first to Laon in 1403, and then Cambrai in 1408. In 1409 he took a post for the Duke of Berry as the "master of the boys", the music teacher and caretaker of the choirboys, at Bourges ; and in 1412 he began his career with the Burgundian court of John

2664-482: The development of the polyphonic style of the next generation. During this period he probably wrote his mass based on the popular " L'homme armé " tune, and he may be the author of the chanson Il sera par vous – L'homme armé , which uses the same cantus firmus; the latter composition may have been inspired by Philip the Good 's call for a new crusade against the Turks, who had recently captured Constantinople . He also wrote

2736-409: The evidence of music composed, and a later relationship with the Malatesta court, members of which he met on the trip, he probably went to the Council of Konstanz . He likely stayed there until 1418, at which time he returned to Cambrai. From November 1418 to 1420 he was a subdeacon at Cambrai Cathedral . In 1420 he left Cambrai for Italy – first to Rimini and then to Pesaro , where he worked for

2808-518: The first significant Renaissance composer. Charles the Bold was killed in 1477 in the Battle of Nancy , during one of his attempts to add territory to his empire. After his death, music continued to flourish as before, but the region was split politically, with the duchy of Burgundy being absorbed into France, and most of the Low Countries becoming part of the holdings of the Spanish Habsburgs . Both

2880-495: The four Lamentationes that he composed on the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, his famous mass based on Se la face ay pale , as well as a letter to Lorenzo de' Medici , survive from this period: but as he was unable to find a satisfactory position for his retirement, he returned north in 1458. While in Savoy he served more-or-less officially as choirmaster for Louis, Duke of Savoy , but he

2952-608: The isorhythmic principle. One is datable to 1414, since it praises the antipope John XXIII , and probably corresponds to the opening of the Council of Konstanz . Grenon also wrote masses , but none survive complete; only a fragment of a Gloria remains, not enough to establish his stylistic technique for this type of composition. Grenon's complete surviving works are edited in Gilbert Reaney, Early Fifteenth-Century Music , vol. 7 ([Rome]: American Institute of Musicology , 1983. The only piece transmitted in more than two sources at

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3024-453: The left beside a portative organ , with Binchois on the right holding a small harp . It is folio 98 recto of the manuscript, which is kept in Bibliothèque nationale de France ( inv. 12476). In comparison to the later depiction, Fallows characterizes the miniature as "more general in its iconography". The image's illuminator is unknown, though it was likely Barthélemy Poignare, who

3096-448: The lute or the harp. In contemporary practice, the loud instruments would usually play from an elevated location, such as a balcony, while the other instruments would play closer to the dancers. Instrumental forms included the basse danse , or bassadanza , which was a ceremonial dance of a rather dignified character, and relatively slow tempo. Typically it was in a duple meter subdivided into threes (in modern notation, 6/8), and often

3168-431: The mass transformed from a group of individual sections written by different composers, often using a head-motif technique, to unified cycles based on a cantus firmus . Dufay, Binchois, Busnois, Reginald Liebert and others all wrote cyclic masses. One of the favorite tunes used as a cantus firmus was the renowned l'homme armé , which was set not only by the Burgundians but by composers of subsequent centuries; indeed it

3240-532: The more angular, austere 14th-century style which gave way to more melodic, sensuous treble-dominated part-writing with phrases ending in the "under-third" cadence in Du Fay's youth) and 87 chansons definitely by him have survived. Of Du Fay's masses, his Missa se la face ay pale and Missa L'Homme armé are listed on AllMusic as essential compositions. Editions of Du Fay's music include: Many of Du Fay's compositions were simple settings of chant, obviously designed for liturgical use, probably as substitutes for

3312-446: The most respected musicians in Europe. As a consequence, honors in the form of benefices came to him from churches in his homeland. In 1434 he was appointed maistre de chappelle in Savoy , where he served Duke Amédée VIII . He had left Rome because of a crisis in the finances of the papal choir while seeking to escape the turbulence and uncertainty during the struggle between the papacy and

3384-508: The next eleven years, Du Fay was in Cambrai serving Philip the Good , under whom he may have written now-lost works on music theory . After a brief return to both Savoy and Italy, Du Fay settled in Cambrai in 1458, where his focus shifted from song and motet, to composing English-inspired cyclic masses based on cantus firmus , such as the Missa Ave regina celorum , the Missa Ecce ancilla Domini ,

3456-464: The period. Given the supposed unimportance of the treatise, the biographer Francesco Rocco Rossi questions why Gaffurius would even include the citations, and suggests that perhaps he was relying on the elder composer's authority. He concludes that "the chronological proximity between the two musicians leads us to consider this testimony faithful." The second derives from the nineteenth-century musicologist François-Joseph Fétis , who claimed to have seen

3528-603: The plainness of simple chant. Burgundian motets tended to be in Latin, written for three voices with the top voice being the most important. An example of a Burgundian motet is Quam pulchra es , written by Dunstaple in the early 15th century. Instrumental music was also cultivated at the Burgundian courts, often for dancing. A peculiarity of the Burgundian instrumental style is that the dukes preferred music for loud instruments ( trumpets , tambourins , shawms , bagpipes ) and more of this survives than for other current instruments such as

3600-512: The presence of either the spiritual or temporal power, for instance the Pope , Anti-pope or the Holy Roman Emperor . In the 14th century, the main centers of musical activity were northern France , Avignon , and Italy , as represented by Guillaume de Machaut and the ars nova , the ars subtilior , and Landini respectively; Avignon had a brief but important cultural flowering because it

3672-429: The refrain. Two written works on music theory by Du Fay have been documented, but neither has survived. The first of these is known from the theorist Gaffurius, who wrote in the margins of both his Ext, uetus parvus musicae and Tractatus brevis cantus plani references to a Musica by Du Fay. The citations, however, are very brief and reveal nothing more than information which might be found in any music treatise of

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3744-509: The region came to Burgundy to study and further their own careers as the reputation of the area spread. The Burgundian rulers were not merely patrons of the arts, but took an active part: Charles the Bold himself played the harp , and composed chansons and motets (although none have survived with reliable attribution). The worldly dukes also encouraged the composition of secular music to a degree seen only rarely before in European music history,

3816-560: The service of Cardinal Louis Aleman , the papal legate. While in Bologna he became a deacon , and by 1428 he was ordained priest. Cardinal Aleman was driven from Bologna by the rival Canedoli family in 1428, and Du Fay also left, going to Rome . He became a member of the Papal Choir, the most prestigious musical establishment in Europe, serving first Pope Martin V , and then after the death of Pope Martin in 1431, Pope Eugene IV . By this time his fame had spread, and he had become one of

3888-421: The smoothly polyphonic , sectional composition seen in the work of the later Burgundians such as Busnois. In the motets, as well as the masses and other sacred music, a common musical technique employed was fauxbourdon , a harmonization of an existing chant in parallel 6-3 chords, occasionally ornamented to prevent monotony. Composition using fauxbourdon allowed sung text to be clearly understood, but yet avoided

3960-539: The summer of 1409, and he was listed as a choirboy in the cathedral from 1409 to 1412. During those years he studied with Nicolas Malin, and the authorities must have been impressed with the boy's gifts because they gave him his own copy of Villedieu 's Doctrinale Puerorum in 1411, a highly unusual event for one so young. In June 1414, aged around 16, he had already been given a benefice as chaplain at St. Géry, immediately adjacent to Cambrai where he studied under Nicolas Malin and Richard Loqueville . Later that year, on

4032-410: The town. When Niccolò died in 1441, the next Marquis maintained the contact with Du Fay, and not only continued financial support for the composer but copied and distributed some of his music. The struggle between the papacy and the Council of Basel continued through the 1430s, and evidently Du Fay realised that his own position might be threatened by the spreading conflict, especially since Pope Eugene

4104-490: The tradition across to the next phase of the chapel, when it was reorganized in 1415. Other early composers there were Hugo and Arnold de Lantins , both of whom Dufay later met in Italy. Of all the names associated with the Burgundian School, the most famous was Guillaume Dufay , who was probably the most famous composer in Europe in the 15th century. He wrote music in many of the forms which were current, music which

4176-456: The unadorned chant, and can be seen as chant harmonizations. Often the harmonization used a technique of parallel writing known as fauxbourdon , as in the following example, a setting of the Marian antiphon Ave maris stella : Du Fay may have been the first composer to use the term "fauxbourdon" for this simpler compositional style, prominent in 15th century liturgical music in general and that of

4248-414: The voices is less; as in the work of other composers of the mid-15th century, he was beginning to tend towards the smooth polyphony which was to become the predominant style fifty years later. A typical ballade is Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye , which was written in 1423 for the marriage of Carlo Malatesta and Vittoria di Lorenzo Colonna The musical form is aabC for each stanza, with C being

4320-470: The works are the same, while Planchart and Laurenz Lütteken list them separately in their catalogues. Two known depictions of Du Fay survive from his lifetime, both described by Planchart as "simplified likenesses", which "clearly depict the same person". The earlier, and better known, is a miniature of him and Binchois from a manuscript of the poet Martin le Franc's Le champion des dames , dated sometime before 1451. The illustration depicts Du Fay on

4392-461: Was a French composer of the early Renaissance . He wrote in all the prevailing musical forms of the time, and was a rare case of a long-lived composer who learned his craft in the late 14th century but primarily practiced during the era during which the Renaissance styles were forming. The earliest records of Grenon are from Paris , where he worked first in the Notre Dame Cathedral , and on

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4464-474: Was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music , who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and reproduced. Du Fay was well-associated with composers of the Burgundian School , particularly his colleague Gilles Binchois , but was never a regular member of the Burgundian chapel himself. While he

4536-444: Was buried in the cathedral; and in 1445 Du Fay moved into the house of the previous canon, which was to remain his primary residence for the rest of his life. Planchart speculates that around this time Du Fay might have written his works on music theory , both of which are lost. After the abdication of the last antipope (Felix V) in 1449, his own former employer Duke Amédée VIII of Savoy, the struggle between different factions within

4608-576: Was carved onto his tombstone. After the destruction of the cathedral during the French Revolution the tombstone was lost, but it was found in 1859 (it was being used to cover a well), and is now in the Palais des Beaux Arts museum in Lille . Du Fay composed in most of the common forms of the day, including masses , motets , Magnificats , hymns , simple chant settings in fauxbourdon , and antiphons within

4680-469: Was deposed in 1439 by the council and replaced by Duke Amédée of Savoy himself, as Pope ( Antipope ) Felix V . At this time Du Fay returned to his homeland, arriving in Cambrai by December of that year. One of the first documents mentioning him in Cambrai is dated 27 December 1440, when he received a delivery of 36 lots of wine for the feast of St. John the Evangelist. Du Fay was to remain in Cambrai through

4752-627: Was granted by papal fiat. In September 1436, Du Fay achieved what he had long sought for, a lucrative benefice near the place of his birth. A certain Jehan Vivien went on to become the bishop of Nevers, vacating his canonicate at Cambrai in the process, and Du Fay was given Vivien's canonicate by both motu proprio and Papal bull . Although the law degree was not necessary in holding the canonicate at Cambrai, Du Fay regarded both titles important enough to be mentioned in his funeral monument. During this period Du Fay also began his long association with

4824-413: Was melodic, singable and memorable (more than half of his sacred music consists of simple harmonizations of plainsong , for example). Contemporary with Dufay were composers such as Gilles Binchois , who was at the Burgundian court between approximately 1430 and 1460, and Hayne van Ghizeghem , a composer, singer and soldier who may have been killed in the last military campaign of Charles the Bold. After

4896-471: Was more likely in a ceremonial role, since the records of the chapel never mention him. When he returned to Cambrai for his final years, he was appointed canon of the cathedral. He was now the most renowned composer in Europe. Once again he established close ties to the court of Burgundy, and continued to compose music for them; in addition he received many visitors, including Busnois , Ockeghem , Tinctoris , and Loyset Compère , all of whom were decisive in

4968-405: Was texted, and the other voices were most likely played by instruments. The bergerette was developed by the Burgundians themselves; it was like a virelai, but shorter, having only one stanza. Most of the composers also wrote sacred music in Latin; this was to remain true for the next several generations. They wrote both masses and motets , as well as cycles of Magnificats . During the period,

5040-724: Was the location of the Papacy during the Western Schism . When France was ravaged by the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), the cultural center migrated farther east, to towns in Burgundy and the Low Countries , known then collectively as the Netherlands . During the reign of the House of Valois , Burgundy was the most powerful and stable political division in western Europe, and added, a bit at

5112-457: Was the manuscript's scribe . Regardless of the illuminator's identity, the artist probably knew Du Fay personally, as their work has been identified in other manuscripts originating in Cambrai. The other is a carving on Du Fay's funeral monument where he is kneeling in the bottom left corner. Standing behind him is Saint Waltrude of Mons, the eponymous saint of the church in Mons where he also held

5184-461: Was the most common tune used as a basis for mass composition in all of music history, with more than forty surviving masses featuring the melody. David Fallows writes of it in the New Grove : "It is hard to think of any other melody in the history of music that has yielded so much music of the highest quality." During the period the motet transformed from the isorhythmic model of the 14th century to

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