Luogo e data di registrazione		Bürgerbräu. München (Germania) - 1-3 maggio 1973 Munstermuseum, Basel (Svizzera) - 17 giugno 1974
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Gerd Berg / Johann-Nikolaus Matthes
	Prima Edizione LP		EMI Electrola "Reflexe" - 1C 063-30 124 - (1 lp) - durata 52' 09" - (p) 1974 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - CDM 7 63426 2 - (1 cd) - durata 52' 11" - (c) 1990 - ADD
	Edizione CD		EMI "Classics" - 8 26493 2 - (1 cd) - durata 52' 09" - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		-

Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) - Chansons und Motets No other priest ever wrote so many love songs as did Guillaume Dufay. Who was he? Why does he capture our attention? There are a few creative artists in the course of the last several centuries, who seem to have a special significance. Everyone has heard of Dante, not everyone has heard of Sacchetti. The reason is not simply that Dante is a better poet, it is that he became the symbol of a period in literary history, the one whose works are considered the main event of the period. Such an artist is Dufay, whose name is far better known than his works. Dufay is the composer we are led to associate with the Burgundian court in the 15th century, a lavish court with a glamorous history, a court often held to play the central cultural role in the period (c.f. Huizinga, Waning of the Middle Ages), a court with which more than ten composers were intimely associated, including some very well known, such as Binchois, Hayne and Busnois. Dufay was born in France about the year 1400, and by the time he was 20 he was in Italy, writing music for the Malatestas. Three pieces for this family are dated 1420, 1423 and 1426. 1427 he was in Bologna, and in that city the following year he was ordained a priest. He then spent some years as a singer in the Papal choir in Rome. 1437 he worked in Ferrara, and the next year he went to work at the court of Savoy. In his will Dufay mentions that he spent some seven years in their service that would be from 1438-1445. That makes him about 45 years old. The following year a document naming him as a canon at St. Wandru in Mons gives him for the first time the title of Burgundian chapelmaster, clearly an honorary title for thus far in his career he has been busy elsewhere. From 1451 on he lived in Cambrai and travelled a great deal. He died then 1474, leaving behind over 200 compositions in the sacred and secular spheres. We see that the Burgundian court plays very ittle role in his biography. We see also that our song-writing priest was clearly a composer by profession, becoming a priest much as some composers today acquire academic status - only as a matter of elegibility. As a composer he had such force as to become for music what Jan van Eyck, his contemporary, became for painting. There was no “collected work" edition of his music during his lifetime, as both Machaut and Wolkenstein before him had seen realized. However, his name is omnipresent in the manuscript sources of the 15th century, both in the central Burgundian chansons and the peripheral sources from Italy, Austria and Germany, etc.. It is this presence in such an unusual number of sources from all over Europe, a presence thouroughly warranted by his reputation, that made him the symbol of 15th century music for us. And it is only human that we wish to associate this composer whose works were in the 15th century most widely disseminated, primarily with the large and most influencial and secular court of Burgundy, even if there is very little connection at all. As we are dealing with a selection from a large repertory we cannot present a statistical representation of Dufay’s over five-score secular songs and many other compositions. We decided to limit our selection to pieces designed for small ensemble, pieces generally of a solistic character, pieces which reflect some specific artistic attitude, pieces which themselves occupy some specific historical pitch. No other chanson of Dufay is represented in as many sources, the runner-up is Se la face ay pale, also a very famous piece represented in nine sources. This last is a ballade équivoque, in which the last syllable of each line is the same, but has each time a different meaning. Dufay himself based a mass on this chanson. This is not the place for a detailed discussion of the works, although a word about the forms may aid the listener in grasping certain important aspects of the music. The motets, for example, frequently employ this structure: - introduction (vocal) lst section (with instrumental isorhythmic tenor) - 2nd section (new pitches, same rhythm) - 3rd section (the isorhythmic tenor is in smaller note-values, quickening the tempo by one third) The motets, of course, following the 13th-14th century tradition always have two texts going on at once, and the melodic character of the vocal lines is not song-like, but composed of rhythmic cells which together present a sound-picture which is difficult to grasp. This is music which progresses and moves forward, and does not look back. Not so with the chansons. Here the structural principle is reiteration. Three structures account for most of the chansons: (letters mean musical sections, capital letters mean that section is sung with the very same text) - Virelai (the fewest): A bb a A - Ballade: a a b (with envoy in final stroph) - Rondeau (the most): A B a A a b A B The envoy at the close of a ballade is simply a repeat of the last few musical phrases with new text. The idea is to bring the work to a definite close, similar to the conclusion of the rondeau or virelai. The virelai accomplishes this by repeating the first line of text and music, the rondeau the first two lines of text and music. Within these fixed structures is a world of detail, of balances, of intriguing relationships, as disguised as the tiny birds in bushes of a Flemish landscape. The texts are not to be taken too seriously; they are seldom of the literary quality we expect from Machaut, the trouveres or the troubadours. The musical architecture has largely replaced the literary element here, so we must focus on musical detail. Thomas Binkley The instruments employed are the instruments of the period: - Rebec: Eugen Springer, Frankfurt - Rebec: Fabrizio Reginato, Fonte Alto (Tv) Italy - Vielle: Fabrizio Reginato, Fonte Alto (Tv) Italy - Vielle: Fabrizio Reginato, Fonte Alto (Tv) Italy - Luter: maker unknown - Luter: Fabrizio Reginato, Fonte Alto (Tv) Italy - Harp: Franz Novy, Vienna - Gittern: Fabrizio Reginato, Fonte Alto (Tv) Italy - Psaltery: maker unknown - Douçaine: Günter Körber, Berlin - Flute (Recorder): von Huene, Boston, USA - Regal: Mads Kjersgaard, Upsala, Sweden - Organetto: Ahrend & Brunzema, Loga bei Leer, Germany Tambourin: A.T. Camposarcone, London
EMI Electrola "Reflexe"