However, the particular notational features of a ‘clefless’ rondeau, Gilles Binchois’s Mon seul et souverain desir, may point to different conclusions. This study suggests that ‘clefless’ notation ultimately assigns priority to the octave-based notion of musical space (grounded on the seven claves) that shaped not only the structure of the gamut, but also the grammar of counterpoint. While six-syllable solmization may well have been successfully used to sight read this chanson, it was by no means a mandatory step for performance. The non-hexachordal approach to ‘clefless’ notation proposed here is in line with the early history of staffed notation, as well as with the general orientation of medieval and Renaissance theorists on the issue of hexachordal solmization.

The research in this article serves two purposes. First, the versions of Amarilli, mia bella and Dolcissimo sospiro contained in Egerton 2971 will be examined and compared to those published in Le nuove musiche as a case study of early 17th-century improvisation. Second, because of Caccini’s open disdain for singers taking liberties with his compositions, an attempt will be made to see if these pieces might be examples of such treatments. The crux of the article aims to show that ornamentation of the time, at least as shown in these examples, was not a random act of substituting stereotyped musical patterns for given intervals, but instead points to a more robust idea of improvisatory thought. Rather than looking at individual ornaments or how specific musical gestures might have painted certain words, the overall structure of the ornamentation is examined to show that it is subject to deeper and subtler intellectual considerations of poetic structure, overall musical structure, and rhetoric.