 guillaume dufay (; also du fay, du fayt; august 5, c. 1397alejandro enrique planchart. "du fay, guillaume." in grove music online. oxford music online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08268 (accessed august 23, 2009). â november 27, 1474) was a franco-flemish composer of the early renaissance. as the central figure in the burgundian school, he was the most famous and influential composer in europe in the mid-15th century. ==life== ===early life=== from the evidence of his will, he was probably born in beersel, in the vicinity of brussels. he was the illegitimate child of an unknown priest and a woman named marie du fayt.planchart, grove marie moved with her son to cambrai early in his life, staying with a relative who was a canon of the cathedral there. soon dufay's musical gifts were noticed by the cathedral authorities, who evidently gave him a thorough training in music; he studied with rogier de hesdin during the summer of 1409, and he was listed as a choirboy in the cathedral from 1409 to 1412. during those years he studied with nicolas malin, and the authorities must have been impressed with the boy's gifts because they gave him his own copy of villedieuâs doctrinale in 1411, a highly unusual event for one so young. in june 1414, at the age of only 16, he had already been given a benefice as chaplain at st. gÃ©ry, immediately adjacent to cambrai. later that year he probably went to the council of konstanz, staying possibly until 1418, at which time he returned to cambrai. ===from cambrai to italy and savoy=== from november 1418 to 1420 he was a subdeacon at cambrai cathedral. in 1420 he left cambrai again, this time going to rimini, and possibly pesaro, where he worked for the malatesta family. although no records survive of his employment there, several compositions of his can be dated to this period; they contain references that make a residence in italy reasonably certain. it was there that he met the composers hugo and arnold de lantins, who were among the musicians of the malatesta household. in 1424 dufay again returned to cambrai, this time because of the illness and subsequent death of the relative with whom his mother was staying. by 1426, however, he had gone back to italy, this time to bologna, where he entered the service of cardinal louis aleman, the papal legate. while in bologna he became a deacon, and by 1428 he was a priest. cardinal aleman was driven from bologna by the rival canedoli family in 1428, and dufay also left at this time, going to rome. he became a member of the papal choir, serving first pope martin v, and then after the death of pope martin in 1431, [[po
1390s_births 1474_deaths Burgundian_school_composers Renaissance_composers