Editor's Introduction

As a focus for this volume, which presents translations of venerable studies by authors who often address diverging themes, the figure of Guillaume Dufay is well chosen. In the first place, Dufay is the subject of the earliest article represented here, Heinrich Besseler’s “Dufay Schöpfer des Fauxbourdons” (1948), and he is also named in the only other study whose title mentions actual composers: Wolfgang Marggraf’s “Tonalität und Harmonik in der französischen Chanson zwischen Machaut und Dufay.” Secondly, some 90 percent of the works discussed below fall within the period encompassing the lifetimes of Machaut (d. 1377) and Dufay (d. 1474), and of these two preeminent figures, it is Dufay who, along with his contemporaries, stands at the center of attention. Thirdly, Dufay must probably be acknowledged as the premier composer of the fifteenth century in terms of productive output and influence—a point affirmed by his pivotal place in the literature. ¹