Ave maris stella guillaume dufay biography

Guillaume Dufay (or Du Fay) was born and bred in the north of France near modern Belgium, a region that supplied the whole of Europe with musicians for many generations.

For over twenty-five years he worked in Italy, where he came to know artists and thinkers of the Renaissance and (no less important) the princely patrons who supported them. His later years were spent in a glow of celebrity at the important French cathedral of Cambrai.

Dufay’s “Ave maris stella” is a homophonic setting of a Gregorian hymn, one of the most tuneful of plainchant genres.

Ave maris stella guillaume dufay biography wikipedia

A short tune is sung through many stanzas, followed by an Amen — much like a modern hymn, in fact. One of the loveliest of Gregorian hymns, “Ave maris stella” was also one of the best known, because it was addressed to the Virgin Mary and sung on all of the many special feasts in her honor, and on most Saturdays, too.

Note how line 1 contains the words AVE MARI(s stell)