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Masses For 1453

Le Champion des Dames' c. 1440. Martin le Franc (1410-61).

Cantica Symphonia has for the past decade specialized in medieval and renaissance polyphony, and most especially, the music of Guillaume Dufay. Over the course of several years, Cantica Symphonia has released a series of recordings dedicated to the music of Dufay on the Glossa label: two volumes of motets, one of chansons, and most recently in 2014, a recording of arguably Dufay’s most influential polyphonic works, the'Missa Se la face ay pale and Missa L’Homme arme. 

Masses

These two masses are among the first in history to use secular or popular songs rather than plainchant as the cantus firmus. For the Missa Se la Face ay Pale Dufay use his own chanson of the same name, while the underlying tune in the Missa L’Homme Armé was a popular anonymous song of the day. The allusions to the common and the secular with the tunes on which Dufay composed these Latin masses was unconventional, though many other composers soon followed suit. In the place of time-honored plainchant, these cantus firmi seem to offer new layers of meaning, or at least incite curiosity.

1453: the Shroud of Turin

What inspired Dufay for these particular tunes? We probably can’t ever have a definitive answer to that question, but in the CD’s liner note, musicologist Ann Walters Robertson offers at least one theory. Robertson links both of these masses to two historical events in 1453: first, Louis Duke of Savoy, a man with whom Dufay was well acquainted, took possession of a famous relic—the thought to be burial linen of Christ which came to be known as the Shroud of Turin. And second, in 1453 Constantinople fell under siege in the East inciting calls for more crusades and a counter-attack.

But what does that have to do with Dufay and his newfangled masses? Dufay-who lived much of his life in Cambrai, was around the time of these 1453 events, engaged by the Duke Louis to come to Savoy. Perhaps the Duke wanted a new musical work to accompany his newly prized relic cloth, and perhaps Dufay thought his chanson Se la face ay pale, or “the pale faced man” a good fit. Paleness was a standard trope in the world of Courtly Love, and in this chanson, the hero mentions that his face is pale because of his love for his Lady. Dufay, transferring that to the sacred in the context of the relic of the shroud, could have been with his use of the Se la ace ay pale tune, inferring Christ’s pallor as the groom, and the church, his bride or his lady in waiting.

1453: the Fall of  Constantinople

There is similar thought presented with this recording about Dufay’s Missa L’homme Arme, based on the pop song, the Armed man. Granted, Dufay probably didn’t write his mass until several years after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, nevertheless, military attitudes were in the air. In this context then, Christ becomes the armed man, a champion in battle, the hoped for hero.

There is much speculation about L’homme arme and Dufay’s mass its modeled after: maybe it references the archangel Michael, or maybe Dufay used it because there was a ta ern with a similar name near where he lived in Cambrai, or maybe because of its associations with the fraternity the Order of the Golden Fleece, or perhaps it had something to do with Charles the Bold's ascension as the Burgundian Duke.

No matter how you think of it, Cantica Symphonia gives a lovely rendition of it.

Instruments

There are several recordings of these masses, but most don't include instruments. Evidence can be found for performances both ways—certainly instruments could double or replace voice parts at times, but did they? And how much did they, and how often and to what extent…?

Modern performers must make their own educated reconstructions in the absence of definitive conclusions. Cantica Symphonia has chosen to add instrument to their performances of these Dufay masses, not out a strong sense of historical accuracy, but rather a stated desire to "allow the modern listener to be able to savor fully the richness and the varietas of Dufay's polyphony." Harp, fiddles, slide trumpets, sackbuts and organ all make appearances in this recording, offering a different soundscape than some previous recordings.

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