david fallows's work has been called "pioneering" on the lives of composers and of the ensembles that performed music, and having covered "just about every aspect of fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century music." among fallows's first publications was, "ciconia padre e figlio" (ciconia: father and son; 1976), which theorized that the current biography of johannes ciconia was primarily that of his father, and that the composer himself was born about thirty-five years later. this theory has become the accepted biography of the composer. also during his doctoral studies he reconstructed the origins of the important fourteenth-century polyphonic manuscripts in cambrai ("l'origine du ms. 1328 de cambrai"). his 1978 dissertation, "robert morton's songs" was among fallows's first works on english renaissance music and fifteenth-century song, repertories that have concerned him throughout his life (including in his 2014 musica britannica volume on english song, 1380–1480). these studies formed the basis for his comprehensive "a catalogue of polyphonic songs, 1415–1480" (oxford 1999). a major article on the life of johannes regis (1989) also had a transformative impact on the understanding of the composer. his 2009 study of the life and works of josquin des prez (brepols) has been praised for understanding the conflicting information recently unearthed about the composer as well as presenting new hypotheses and understanding of the composer's music in light of new discoveries.