Composer of the Week: Guillaume Dufay

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474): The medieval mindset

Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474)

The medieval mindset

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), The medieval mindset

Donald Macleod explores the deeply moving music Dufay selected for his funeral rites.

Donald Macleod explores the deeply moving music Dufay planned for his end-of-life observances, including a mass to his favourite saint and settings of Ave Regina caelorum.

Donald Macleod explores the rich and profoundly moving music Dufay planned for observances at the end of his life.

The beauty, originality and technical mastery of Guillaume Dufay’s music illustrate why the Florentine ruler Piero de’Medici gave him the epithet “the greatest ornament of our age”. Undoubtedly he is one of the 15th century’s most distinctive voices.  He was in his late 70s by the time he died in 1474; a long life by medieval standards.  His outstanding talent transported him from an uncertain start in life as the illegitimate son of a servant and an unknown man, to being a musician who was feted at court, and respected by the church and the papacy alike. As his fame spread across Europe, he commanded the admiration of his fellow composers, influencing not only his direct contemporaries but also the generation of composers who succeeded him, among them Johannes Ockeghem. 

Donald Macleod is joined by William Lyons, a historical music researcher and the founder, director of the ensemble The Dufay Collective. Pulling together what’s known about Dufay, across the series of five programmes, they build a picture of the man behind this illustrious reputation, examine the key relationships he fostered, and consider how his music flourished as he navigated the turbulent political currents of the age.
 
Dufay set out his funeral obsequies in detail and he regarded his transition to the after-life to be of paramount importance; naturally all such arrangements required some exceptional music. 

St. Anthony of Padua Mass – Kyrie 
The Binchois Consort 
Andrew Kirkman, conductor 

Ce jour de l’an 
Bernhard Landauer, counter –tenor		
Unicorn Ensemble 
Michael Posch, director 

St. Anthony of Padua Mass – Gloria   
The Binchois Consort 
Andrew Kirkman, conductor 

Quel fronte signorillo  
C’est bien raison de devoir essaucier   
La Reverdie

Ave Regina caelorum  
The Orlando Consort 

Missa Ave regina caelorum – Sanctus, Agnus Dei 
Cantica Symphonia
Giuseppe Maletto, director

Producer: Johannah Smith for BBC Cymru Wales

Composer of the Week: Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod is joined by William Lyons to explore Guillaume Dufay's life and music.

Donald Macleod is joined by researcher William Lyons to explore Guillaume Dufay's life and music. They examine the key relationships he fostered and how his music flourished.

Donald Macleod is joined by William Lyons, a historical music researcher and the founder, director of the ensemble The Dufay Collective. Pulling together what's known about Dufay, across the series of five programmes, they build a picture of the man behind this illustrious reputation, examine the key relationships he fostered, and consider how his music flourished as he navigated the turbulent political currents of the age.

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