Today’s journal will cover the composer Guillaume De Fay, the other most famous Burgundian

composer. De Fay was born in 1397 in modern-day Belgium and died in 1474. He studied music

and grammar at the cathedral school of Cambrai. When he was younger, he worked as a singer

and composer in courts and chapels. From 1439 until his death, he resided in Cambrai and

served as an administrator at a chapel. He spent his final years in Cambrai as a canon of the

cathedral. De Fay traveled many times during his lifetime, exposing him to a plethora of music,

like French and Burgundian. He often combined multiple musical traits into his music. The work

Se la face ay pale is a chanson that De Fay wrote at the court of Savoy. This work demonstrates

English traits, like short, catchy phrases and consonant harmonies. He composed this work

freely to fit each line of text. There are three stanzas, the refrain line which closes each stanza,

and the final melisma, all of which are characteristic of the ballade tradition. This work marks a

change in his style. There is frequent syncopation and a contratenor line with leaps, showing

the influence of the French style. There is a blending here of the French and English tradition.

The English influence manifests itself in prevalent consonances, thirds and sixths, and a balance

between the cantus and tenor melodies. One of the most well-known tenor masses in his

lifetime was his Missa Se la face ay pale, based on his own aforementioned work. In the Gloria

of this mass, the cantus firmus is heard three times, first in notes that are triple the value, then

doubled, and then in the original note value. This is an excellent example of isorhythmic motet,

but at a larger scale. The structure of this work is quite astounding. In the last section, there are

six measures that feature a duet without the tenor, eighteen measures with the tenor, three

measures of rest in the tenor, and finally twelve measures with tenor. Reducing this proportion

gives a ration of 2:6:1:4. This set of ratios gives numbers whose ratios form a perfect fifth,
octave, and a twelfth. These are also the same ratios present in the larger context of the whole

movement. Incredible!