Was Du Fay aware, at such a poignant moment, of the inadvertent, irrelevant in-joke of having the
added flat (which, to a fifteenth-century singer, meant “sing fa ”) occur on the text syllable “Mi-”? No
doubt he was as aware of it as any singer would be, and found the irony irresistible—so irresistible that
he strove to make it relevant to the affective content of the motet. Ex. 13-3b shows the way in which Du
Fay set the one other text line that contained his name: Miserere supplicanti Dufaÿ (“Have mercy on thy
suppliant, Du Fay”). This time the tenor, which never partakes of the tropes, is silent. Superius and altus
engage in a little canon, both entering with E-flat on “Mi-” as the superius had done before. Even the
bassus gets into the act, with a flatted “Miserere” at the fifth, that is on A -flat, which takes it even farther
into flat space, and even closer to an adumbration of an actual major–minor “tonal” contrast.
EX. 13-3B Guillaume Du Fay, Ave Regina coelorum III, “Miserere supplicanti Dufaÿ”