Although there is good evidence that Dufay was a somewhat mean man in his old age, his sense of humour, at least in musical matters, seems to have remained healthy. The uncredited text of Donnés l'assault may well have been written by the composer himself; it seems in fact likely that it was. It's an incitement to the god of love to assault the fortress of his beloved's heart. Just what Dufay's literary tastes were like is difficult to know, but he apparently liked sophisticated, even snobbish courtly jokes. Another secular piece, the text of which is also likely by the composer, Juvenis qui puellam, couches its themes of intrigue in the terms of a legal argument; a joke, sure, but hardly a gut-buster.



The humour of Donnés l'assault is far less icy than Juvenis qui puellam. In order to create a sense of playful merriment, Dufay composes a number of gags straight into the music. For example, he laces it with trumpet-like motifs, and uses careful a tonal scheme that leads irresistibly, ‘triumphantly', through various vacillations towards the tonic chord in the second part. This tonal scheme suggests the progress and attainment of victory in battle, the battle of love. These tricks are surprisingly audible. Having heard the piece described this way, no one could fail to hear brassy implications in the lower lines at the opening of the piece, nor feel the surprisingly strong tonal arrival as a victory attained. But it is not a heavy attainment, or a brutal victory, there's not a hint of thunder or lightning in the Donnés l'assault. If it's war, it's a little boys', or a dandy's war; silly, bouncy, with a cartoonish appeal.

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