The Odyssey

Ave Maris Stella Ave Maris Stella is composed by Guillaume Dufay. He was born in approximately 1398 and died in about 1474. He was known as the innovator of the 15th century during the renaissance. When he was younger he was brought up as a choirboy in the Cambrai cathedral. That is also where he spend majority of his time. In about 1420 he was ordained a priest. From then on he got a degree and was appointed to many important and influential positions in the church. He traveled to many different locations, writing songs for mass as he went. The fact that he was a priest and fine composer, made him valuable. Everyone wanted him to compose music for themselves and for special events. Guillaume was the innovator of that for many reasons. He came up with a whole new way of style that people did not use back then. One style that he brought the musical era was the control of dissonance. He used dissonances properly and appropriately instead of randomly like most composers back then used. A second style was that he blended the voices in a way that they all work together to make the sound more complete and together, other composers had a part stand out. The third style was that he used the four main part voices in his most songs, the tenor, bass, alto and soprano, instead of using three, five, or even six. Finally, the fourth style he used was the repetitiveness of rhythmic patterns as a way to make the piece complete. People loved his pieces so much people caught on and started using his ideas for their own. Ave Maris Stella is a popular hymn of an unknown origin. This hymn has been written by many composers from a-little before baroque to the present day.Some of the writings employ four different plainchant tunes for the Ave Maris Stella; the first three were written for solemnities, feasts, and memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary a fourth is an alternative to the memorial tone. These plainchant tones have been used as the cantus firmus for some polyphonic settings