Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474): Missa ¨Ave Regina Caelorum¨, Motets & Chansons

00:00 Missa ¨Ave Regina¨ (1472): Kyrie - Gloria - Credo - Sanctus - Agnus Dei

Motets
35:40 Ave Regina Caelorum III (1464)
43:05 Lamentatio Sanctae Matris (1454)

Chansons
46:34 Puisque vous estez campieur (c. 1470)
49:49 Se la face ay pale (c. 1430)

Capella Cordina - Alejandro Planchart, director
Susan Addiss, Millicent Allison, Carol Christ, Jeanine Dovell, Helen Erickson, Roberta Graziano, Grace Hucko, Alexandra Ivanoff, Helen Kivnik, Heather McClave, Kathryn Sencabaugh, Kerala Snyder, Conrad Cummings, Joseph Fuchs, John Graziano, Fred Johnson, George Newtown, Fred Petty, David Richie
Andrea Jacobs: viola - Frederick Bashour: organ - William Clark, William Cobb: bassoon
William Liddell: recorder - Benjamin Peck: sackbut - David Schonfeld: English horn

Guillaume Dufay was the most celebrated composer of his age, and remains one of the towering figures in the history of Western music. Most of the pieces in this album come fromhis later years and show him at the very height of his inspiration. This is particularly true of the motet Ave Regina and the Mass based upon it.

The Ave Regina was composed ca. 1463 at Cambrai, where Dufay was a cathedral canon from ca. 1440 to his death. It is based upon the Gregorian Antiphon which is used as a cantus firmus and set in the tenor voice. Dufay has given a rhythmic setting to the plainsong and has added melodic ornaments to it in such a way as to make it sound like the newly composed voices that surround it. In addition, the melodic substance of the plainsong permeates the other voices, particularly in the opening duets.

The text of the Antiphon is a "letter" to the Virgin. It sings her praises and seeks her intercession in our behalf. Into this traditional text, Dufay interpolated his own personal message. In his will, the composer requested that this piece be sung at his death-bed; this was not possible, and it was sung instead at his funeral.

The Mass is related to the motet in a number of ways. Both works use the same Antiphon as a cantus firmus, but in the Mass it is changed and ornamented anew in each movement. The Mass also has a large number of references to the motet. Sometimes these do not go beyond writing the same kind of music; thus the “et iuva" section of the motet was clearly the inspiration for the second Christe and part of the Agnus Dei II, but many direct quotations can be found. The most extensive is the citing, in the second Agnus Dei, of the passage set in the motet to the words "miserere supplicanti Dufay."

This Mass stands out in Dufay's production as his most splendid and outwardly magnificent work. A number of other traits, such as the nine separate Kyries, make it an exceptional piece in the whole 15th century. According to recent research, it is likely that it was written for a particularly important ceremony: the consecration of the Cambrai cathedral to the Virgin Mary in 1472.

Dufay's lamentation is the only surviving one of a set of four. One of them, though not this one, may have been the famous Lamentation sung in 1454 at the Feast of the Pheasant, held by Philip the Good to inaugurate the Order of the Golden Fleece. The surviving Lamentation is a powerful and dark work that sets a French lament by the Virgin Mary over a Latin fragment taken from Jeremiah.

The Rondeau Puisque vous estez campieur is a magnificent tour-de-force. It depicts a drinking contest by a strict canon at the octave accompanied by a wild, reeling free voice.

Sela face ay pale was Dufay'smost popular ballade. It matches asad but slightly sardonic text with some of his liveliest music.

Performance notes:
Missa Ave Regina, Ave Regina Caelorum III.
Superius: 5 singers, recorder.
Contratenor: 5 singers, English horn, viola.
Tenor: 3 singers, sackbut (and portative organ in the motet only).
Bassus: 5 singers, bassoon.

Lamentation
Superius: 6 singers, English horn.
Contratenor: sackbut.
Tenor: 6 singers, recorder.
Bassus: bassoon.

Puisque vous estez campieur
Cantus: Alexandra Ivanoff.
Tenor: Joseph Fuchs.
Contratenor: viola, portative organ.

Se la face ay pale
Cantus: Jeanine Dovell, recorder.
Tenor: Joseph Fuchs, English horn.
Contratenor: bassoon (William Clark).

The Mass survives in two different versions. We recorded that of Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale, MS 5557, a copy that probably belonged to Dufay. The source gives two versions of Christe II, We chose the more elaborate canonic version. The source for Puisque vous estez campieur shows no way of doing the return from the medial cadence; we devised our own. Similarly, the repeat of Stanza I of Se la face ay pale was our idea. The choral performance of the Lamentation would have been more likely at a cathedral rather than at the court chapel.

Recorded by Frederick Bashour in Marquand Chapel, at Yale University, in May of 1970.

Видео Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474): Missa ¨Ave Regina Caelorum¨, Motets & Chansons канала calefonxcalectric