Connecting the dots: Guillaume Du Fay and Savoy during the schism

Abstract

ABSTRACTFollowing the Council of Basel in 1439, which initiated the papal schism between Eugenius IV and Felix V (Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy), Guillaume Du Fay appears to have resumed his northern connections, leaving the court of Savoy and returning to the patronage of the Duke of Burgundy. This article sheds new light on the timing of the composer's move, and on his continued contact with the court of Savoy during the schism of the 1440s. Examination of liturgical sources from the cathedral of Cambrai and elsewhere brings to light a liturgical and musical anomaly in Du Fay's polyphonic settings of Mass Propers for St Maurice, composed during this period, suggesting that this cycle may have been commissioned from Savoy, although Du Fay seems to have had access only to Cambrai chant sources for its cantus firmi.