Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/651

FAY. place on the list of the twelve Singers. In 1437 his name is omitted, eleven Singers only being mentioned, without him; and after this he disappears from the records. A document has, however, been discovered, in which mention is made of his release from his engagements, in 1437; and M. Houdoy's researches at Cambrai prove, beyond all doubt, that between that year and 1450 he spent seven years in Savoy; that he took his degree of Magister in artibus, and Baccalareus in decretis, in Paris, at the Sorbonne, before 1442; that he entered the service of Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, as music-tutor to his son Charles, Comte de Charolais; that he obtained a Canonry in the Cathedral of Cambrai, in 1450; and that he died there in 1474.

In his will, which is still in existence at Cambrai, Dufay bequeaths to one of his friends six books which had been given to him by the Comte de Charolais; to another, a portrait of Louis XI, who, when Dauphin, spent some time at the Court of Burgundy; to a third, a portrait of Réné of Anjou, who was Philippe's prisoner for a long time; and to a certain Pierre de Wez 30 livres, in return for seven years' use of his house in Savoy. He also desires that, when he has received the Last Sacraments, and is in articulo mortis, eight Choristers of the Cathedral shall sing, very softly, by his bedside, the hymn 'Magno salutis gaudio'; after which, the altar-boys, with their master, and two choristers, shall sing his motet, 'Ave Regina coelorum.' This pious duty was, however, performed, not at his bedside, but in the chapel, after his death, 'corpore presente.'

The will is printed entire by Haberl, who also gives a woodcut of the tombstone, with the inscription given above, and a representation in bold relief of the master, kneeling, with folded hands, in the dexter corner, in front of S. Waltrudis and her two daughters, the remainder of the stone being occupied with a representation of the Resurrection of Our Lord, while the four corners are ornamented with a medallion, or rebus, in which the name, Dufay, is encircled by a Gothic G. The stone is now in the collection formed by M. Victor de Lattre, of Cambrai.

The archives of the Cathedral of Cambrai contain a record of 60 scuta, given to Dufay as a 'gratification,' in 1451. And the text of a letter, written to Guil. Dufay by Antonio Squarcialupi, a Florentine Organist, and dated 1 Maggio, 1467, is given, by Otto Kade, in the Monatshefte for 1885.

Guil. Dufay is mentioned, by Adam de Fulda, as the first Composer who wrote in regular form (magnum initium formalitatis). This statement, however, can only be accepted as correct, in so far as it concerns the Continental Schools, since the Reading MS. proves regular form to have been known and used in England as early as the year 1226. Nevertheless, though he was not, as has so long been supposed, the eldest, but the youngest of the three great Contrapuntists of his age&mdash;Dunstable, Founder of the Second English School having died in London in 1458, and Binchois at Lille in 1460&mdash;his title to rank as the Founder of the First Flemish School is rather strengthened, than invalidated, by the recent discussion to which we have alluded: for, his contributions towards the advancement of Art were of inestimable value. If not actually the first, he was one of the first Composers in whose works we find examples of the Second, Fourth, and Ninth, suspended in Ligature: and he was also one of the first of those who availed themselves of the increased facilities of contrapuntal evolution afforded by the then newly-invented system of white notation&mdash;the 'blacke voyd' of the English theorists. So highly was his learning esteemed by his contemporaries, that, when on a visit to Besançon, in 1458, he was asked to decide a controversy concerning the Mode of the Antiphon 'O quanta exultatio angelicis turmis,' his decision that it was not, as commonly supposed, in Mode IV, but in Mode II, and that the mistake had arisen through a clerical error in the transcription of the Final, was accepted by the assembled savants as an authoritative settlement of the question.

Besides the collection of Dufay 's MS. Compositions among the Archives of the Cappella Sistina, and the Vatican Library, Haberl has identified 62 in the Library of the Liceo filarmonico, at Bologna; 25 in the university of the same city; and more than 30 in other collections. Many will also be found in the rare Part-Books printed, at the beginning of the i6th century, by Petrucci,and in the Dodecachordon of Glareanus. The 'Ave Regina coelorum' is given, by Haberl, in the original notation of the old Part-Books, and also in the form of a modernized Score; together with a Score of a 'Pange lingua, a 3'; and some important examples are given among the posthumous Noten-Beilagen at the end of Ambros's 'Geschichte der Musik.' A short quotation from his 'Missa Tomine armé' will be found in vol. iii. p. 260 a. [ W. S. R. ]

FELIX MERITIS. Add that the society ceased to exist in 1888.

FERNAND CORTEZ. Line 5 of article, for 1808 read 1809.

FESTIVALS. Line 28 of article, for 1767 read 1764. Same column, line 17–18 from bottom, for Thuringian Musical Festival, etc., read a Festival at Frankenhausen in 1804, and refer to Spohr's Autobiography, i. 151. P. 516 b, l. 2, for 1709 read 1698. For other festivals, consult, beside the articles referred to, and

FÉTIS,. Add that in 1829 he came to England for the purpose of giving a course of lectures on musical history. The season was too far advanced to allow of his doing so, and the plan was abandoned, a single lecture being given at Sir George Warrender's, on May 29, when illustrations were given by Camporese, Malibran, Mme. Stockhausen,