Dufay's Missa Se Face Ay Pale

Although the specifics of his origin are unknown, Guillaume Dufay was most likely born around 1400 in the area around Cambrai. He first appears in the written record in the documents from the Cambrai cathedral, where he is listed as a choirboy, named Willelmus, from the years 1409 to 1412. During this time, Dufay learned the techniques of composition from performing and copying music. Like many other composers of his day, Dufay moved to Italy early in his career because it was the big place for music during this time. Dufay spent more than twenty five years in Italy. While in Italy, he received a very good education. "He was exceptionally educated, having attended a cathedral school and received a degree in canon law from the University of Bologna. He was appointed to influential offices in the church, not because of his music--although he was greatly admired as a composer--but because of his learning" ().

He also served some of the most important Patrons of the day and learned from some of the brightest minds of the Renaissance. One of the families he served was the wealthy Malesta family of Pearso, for whom he wrote numerous works. Later in his career, Dufay served in the

The cantus firmus for Missa Se la face ay pale was taken from a chanson Dufay had written when he was about thirty years of age. The words are in the nature of a ballade, so instead of rhymes, the same final syllables are repeated in a different sense.

As the number of polyphonic settings of the Mass increased, the Burgundian Composers in the 15th century aimed to unify the entire ordinary as a whole. Until this point the sections of the ordinary were always composed as separate pieces. Now composers like Dufay were basing all the sections of the ordinary on a single melodic subject. That single melodic line, or cantus firmus, would be placed in the tenor and all the parts of all the movements would be constructed around this line. The cantus firmus for these Masses were either borrowed from plainchant or even secular tunes. Composers like Dufay would take an existing secular tune, normally from a chanson, and would use the song’s original rhythm, but the pattern of the melody could be made faster or slower in relation to the other voices. In Dufay’s Missa Se la face ay pale the tenor may consist of long, drawn out notes, and in other parts the tenor may be used in its normal note value. In the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, the value of each note of the tenor is doubled and therefore is more drawn-out and harder to recognize. In the Gloria and Credo is first heard at triple the note value, then in doubled note value, and finally is heard at normal note value and is most recognizable at this point. This is another degree of the isorhythmic idea.

Dufay lived in a period of great artistic awakening in Europe. This transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance saw incredible creative growth in nearly all artistic areas, from painting to literature to, of course, music. Dufay was an important figure in ushering in the new creative age, the Renaissance, and has become widely recognized

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