Western Culture Global Presents The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness. #88: Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) was the premier composer of the 15th century. His greatest contribution was his using secular tunes to replace Gregorian chants as the fixed melody that served as the basis for mass. He was also one of the first composers to use harmonies, phrasing and expressive melodies that were characteristic of the early Renaissance. Dufay also wrote a number of secular songs, many of which were popular away from the church in courts and cities. Dufay’s pioneering emphasis on secular music reflected a larger cultural trend, indicative of the Renaissance, of using the arts, including music, for worldly pursuits and pleasures, and not primarily for the service of God. Go to #89: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — Home Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Numerical Order Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Century Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Category
			Home | Knowledge Center | Top 100 Western Culture Heroes | Projects | About Us | Contact © 2009 Western Culture Global