In pre-industrial Europe, the people felt the change of seasons in the core of their being. Summer is a joyous and warm time, autumn the time of harvest and preparation for the coming ravages of winter. The return of spring, then, represents new life and new flowering; it is the most fertile time for the celebration of physical love. The deeply felt consciousness of the seasons may be seen in the illustrated calendars that open Books of Hours; it inhabits the poetry and music of those with leisure time to compose them. It was quite early in the musical career of Francesco Landini that he approached the topic of the sensual rites of spring. Early in his life, Landini lost his sight; he left his family's painting studio to create poetry and music. It is possible that he himself wrote the text to the Italian ballata Ecco (often also spelled echo) la primavera; he certainly gave his native Florence a musical setting of that text, which bursts with the joy of life, and of the senses.

The poem Landini set, appropriately enough, follows the structure of the ballata, originally a dance form. The form circles around itself, ending with the same refrain with which it began. Between the two refrains lie two "piedi" (feet) and a verse that returns to the refrain music. This ballata celebrates spring, the "time to be enamoured, and to live with a light air." The text sings of fresh grass, an abundance of flowers, and the "adorned" trees, before returning to love. Landini's music breathes a similar grace, lightness, and exuberance. He sets the text for two voices in a close duet; in most phrases, the two begin together, spread apart melodically, and then return to sit together on the same pitch. Right in the first measure, he graces the top melody with an accidental F sharp, to spring back upwards. Rhythmically, both clip through the text almost entirely syllabically; their simply dressed phrases use the tripping rhythms of the ballata-dance. One contemporary literary account tells of a Florentine party at which two beautiful young girls danced and sang a ballata of Francesco Landini's. Ecco la primavera may be an excellent candidate for such an event of beauty.

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