Characteristics of the plainsong may be reaffirmed, but can also be reinterpreted or rejected in the polyphony.
This is no less true of plainsong and medieval music than of any field of human endeavour.
This should prove invaluable to many people working on plainsong and liturgy.
The improvisatory vocalizing, typical of plainsong, is inescapably associated with woman, although this contradicts historical traces of the male-only plainsong practice of earlier centuries.
The plainsong appendix, though described as an 'edition' (p. lxv), is thus more accurately a simple transcription.
Their use of prose rhythm provides another direct link to the plainsong period.
Most of these creations were not 'compositions' strictly speaking, but rather enhanced, embellished performances of the ritual plainsongs that were their reasons for existence in the first place.
His intimate knowledge of the prevailing plainsong styles, here that of responsorial chant, and of the modal system permits him to create melodies that exploit and expand those conventions.
