CONTINUUM: Machaut and Dufay

By Milton G. Scheuermann Jr.

Published March 20, 2016 at 6:00 AM CDT

The music of the two most important known medieval composers are featured on this Continuum, They are Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377) and Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474). Machaut is the first known composer of music for a sacred liturgical mass and Dufay composed music that is considered the first important compositions leading into the Renaissance period. On the program are excerpts from Machaut’s Mass of Notre Dame and Dufay’s many secular music compositions. Recordings used are: Guillaume de Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame (Hilliard Ensemble) - Hyperion CDA66358, Guillaume de Machaut - Ay Mi! (Emmanuel Bonnardot) - Opus 111 OPS 30-171, Guillaume Dufay - Complete Secular Music (Medieval Ensemble of London) - DECCA 452 557-2, and Dufay - Missa “Se la face ay pale” (Early Music Consort of London) - Veritas Virgin Classics 7234 5 61283 2 3.

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Milton G. Scheuermann Jr.

Milton has been the co-host (with Thais St. Julien) of Continuum since 1976. He is a true New Orleanean, born on Mardi Gras day, attending P. A. Capdau Grammar School and Warren Easton High School. After completing the five year program of the Tulane School of Architecture in 1956 he was drafted into the Army. After a two year stint in the combat engineers in Germany he returned to New Orleans to work with the architectural firm of Goldstein, Parham & Labouisse, becoming an associate in the firm of Parham & Labouisse after Mr. Goldstein’s death. He was appointed University Architect for Dillard University in 1972 and retired from that position in 2002.

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