Ensemble Musica Nova - Dufay: Flos Florum. Motets, Hymns, Antiphons (2005)

Tracklist

01. Salve flos Tusce gentis
02. Urbs beata Jerusalem
03. Flos florum
04. Ave regina caelorum (plain chant)
05. Ave regina caelorum
06. Ave regina reparatrix
07. Imperatrix angelorum
08. Ave maris stella
09. Inclita stella maris
10. Anima mea liquefacta est
11. Jesu corona virginum
12. Ave virgo
13. Gaude virgo mater Christi



Like many of his contemporaries, Guillaume Dufay was greatly devoted to the Virgin Mary. His Marian works comprise liturgical pieces sung during the Mass or the Office, but also religious motets written to new poems. It was probably during his first period in the chapel of the dukes of Savoy that Dufay produced a complete cycle of polyphonic hymns for the Office of Vespers of the principal feasts. Their interpretation obeys the principle of alternatim chant, that is to say alternation between monophonic odd-numbered verses, sung in plainchant, and even-numbered polyphonic verses. Dufay employs here the techniques of composition already in use in the fourteenth century. The liturgical melody is sung in the highest voice but appears transformed according to the principles of paraphrase: the composer’s inventive contribution, in this context, resides in the flexibility of the mensuration (often ternary) and the grace of his ornamentation. The other two, lower voices accompany it in a virtually homophonic style. The influence of the improvisatory practice known as ‘fauxbourdon’ is manifest. In its simple form, the melody of the cantus is doubled by the tenor and the contratenor, respectively a sixth and a fourth lower. The result is a succession of highly characteristic chords, interrupted only for the cadences.

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