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Analytical approaches to late medieval polyphony are by and large still in their earliest developments and their sheer variety and richness is testifi ed by a publication such as Mark Everist (ed.), Music before 1600, Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1992, one of the very few, by the way, to be specifi cally devoted to pre-baroque music. Many analysts tackling 14th/16th-century polyphony have often taken very strong theoretical stances as preconditions for work, ranging from Christian Berger´s systematic superposition of the hexachordal system onto contemporary theories of the modes to Harry Powers´ rejection of modality as a viable analytical tool for polyphony. An alternative approach would be one that does not lose touch with contemporary modal theories and at the same time strives to attain a satisfactory understanding of the working of this repertory based on the music itself. A practical application is to systematically search for an important mode-defi ning concept, such as fourth and fifth species, and how these shape and characterise the melodic articulation of polyphony. The present work practically undertakes this approach via a survey of the complete songs of Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois, with detailed analyses of a large selection of pieces.

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"Laurea" degree in musicology (Bologna, Prof. Franco A. Gallo, 1996); D. Phil in music (Oxford, Prof. Reinhard Strohm, 2004). Scholarly activity in Jena-Weimar (2004-5), Trondheim (2006-7) and London (2007-9). Presently active at Salzburg University.

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