Jean Dufon

Jean Dufon, also known as Jean de Namur, was a Flemish composer and singer born in Namur towards the end of the sixteenth century. His career unfolded almost entirely at the Spanish court of Philip II and of his successor, Philip III, which makes him a testament to the intense circulation of musicians between the Low Countries and the Spanish monarchy at the time.

He trained as a boy chorister at the collegiate church of St Albinus in Namur. At the age of eleven he was recruited to serve in the royal chapel of Philip II, and he arrived in Madrid in early 1586, accompanied by thirteen other boy sopranos. There he studied singing and composition with Philippe Rogier. On completing his training, in December 1593, he was promoted to royal singer and became known as Jean de Namur.

After the death of Philip II he remained in the service of his son, who moved the court to Valladolid between 1601 and 1606. Probably in 1605 he succeeded Géry de Ghersem as assistant maestro di cappella. A copyist of the chapel, Gaspar de Arratia, described him as a composer capable of directing any chapel in Spain at the beginning of the seventeenth century. In August 1606 he returned to the Low Countries for health reasons and settled in Namur. There he was a priest and held a prebend at Ivoix between 1604 and 1620, in addition to drawing an ecclesiastical pension from the bishopric of Córdoba.

His musical legacy is known chiefly through the catalogue of the library of King John IV of Portugal, destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It lists a Mass for eight voices, four other sacred works and eight pieces with French texts, probably chansons. Some of these dates and attributions are uncertain, so his output should be approached with caution.