Dufays Piece for Peace: an Ironic Battle Between Structure and Word Es

Dufays Piece for Peace an Ironic Battle Between Structure and WordOn April 8, 1433, the Pope Eugenius and Sigismundus, King of the Romans, united to sign a treaty of peace. The king was crowned Holy Roman Emperor and there was much celebration. To commemorate this joyful occasion, Guillame Dufay wrote the motet Supremum est mortalibus bonum (The highest good for mortals is peace), including the names of these two honored hands in his great sustained chords near the installs conclusion (Bent, CD notes). Dufays main text is shared by his top two voices, the triplum and motetus, and is divided into two stanzas. The outgrowth 12 lines comprising the first stanza speak of the benefit of peace to men of all classes and of the freedom and joy it brings to the natural world. The second stanza, encompassing the final 8 lines, prays for the eternity of peace and praises Eugenius and Sigismundus, the envoys of peace. Dufay carefully sets these words to music, colorfully painting their mean ings before our eyes through his rich melodic lines. Ironically, however, as he also struggles to bring isorhythmic structure and contain to his work, he battles between text and design, foregoing a sense of peace to create a curious collage of his musical ideas.Dufays motet is of isorhythmic design, employing a repeating melodic line line that moves slowly beneath the other parts, functioning as a foundation for the work. As noted by Grout, isorhythmic motets have tenors built up of colour in (the repeating series of pitches) and talea (the long recurring rhythmic unit).1 Dufays tenor has six 15 bar units of a certain talea. His piece is curious, for we could interpret it as having two colors, since the entire melodic line of the tenor repeats only o... ... the last three measures of the works introduction, bringing the motet full circle. The last two beats of bar 119 surround us with odd tension and dissonance on the final men, which is peacefully resolved on the final cadenc e of bar 120. (Play Example 12) With Supremum est Mortalibus bonum Dufay has created a piece that lavishly illustrates text while also employing fauxbourdon and isorhythmic design. With so many competing forces fighting to be displayed and heard, Dufays work about peace is ironically at war with itself. though a fine composition on all these levels, a careful listening and analysis leaves us feeling unsettled and certainly not at peaceWorks Cited1Grout, Donald J. and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, (New York W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1996) 104-105.2 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. F, 434.