Faburden and fauxbourdon in the 15th-century carol

Abstract The debate about how faburden and fauxbourdon relate and interact in 15th-century music has been heated. Manfred Bukofzer, Heinrich Besseler, Brian Trowell and Ernest Trumble, among others, have all tried to disentangle the early history of these techniques, with the discussion culminating in the middle of the 20th century. Following a lull in research, David Fallows revisited the topic in his latest book, which focused on the 15th-century carol. He proposed a new way of interpreting fauxbourdon both in the carol repertoire and more generally. This article recontextualizes the way in which faburden and fauxbourdon have been interpreted in recent literature. It explores hitherto neglected instances of carols in which faburden and fauxbourdon are used in order to draw conclusions about whether and how the two techniques might have been applied in the repertoire.