DUFAY, GUILLAUME

(ca. 1397-1474)

   Flemish composer and singer, associated with the court of the dukes of Burgundy, though he seems not to have been a regular member of the ducal chapel. He began as a choirboy at Cambrai cathedral and from 1420 to 1457 served several Italian rulers, including the duke of Savoy and Pope Eugenius IV. He received from the pope a valuable canonry in the cathedral at Cambrai and spent some of the period after 1439 and probably all his later years in that city. He was an unusually well educated man and had a degree in canon law from the University of Bologna. His compositions included both secular songs and liturgical music. While in Italy, he composed a motet for the ceremonies held in 1436 to consecrate the magnificent dome designed and built by Filippo Brunelleschi for the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence.