This is certainly one of Landini's later songs, from the last of five discernible phases in his work. Scholars have established that fact based on three things aside from the advanced quality of the work: the use of three parts, the lack of texts furnished for the two lower parts, and the use of French notational techniques. All of these things point to an increasing degree of French influence in Landini's work as his career wore on, and that is the trajectory along which his development is usually charted. As all the elements mentioned are absent from his early work, so follows the assignment of a later date.

Furthermore, the piece is composed in the manner of an "accompanied song," with the lower parts written in a more instrumental style, while the superius takes on the key role; it was in France that such music was developed, and through trade between Florentine and French merchants that the styles made their way to Italy. The result was the creation of a hybrid genre that retained the principal characteristic of Italian music until then: an incomparable melodic grace. Landini's songs are the apotheosis of this marriage of different tastes and techniques.

Quanto più caro fai is graced with a wistful, nostalgic eloquence. The rather primitive accompaniment scheme results in something not entirely what Landini intended; rather than lifting each other, the notes and lines seem to circle around each other, floating in a daydreamy, mid-afternoon brightness. The rhythmic character is calm; even the passages of syncopation and short notes scintillate with a jewel like stillness rather than surging forward. Landini was a master performer at the organetto, his playing said to charm birds from the trees, and one can hear the influence of his instrument on his songs; their compactness of gesture, the motivic closeness of the parts, seem to speak of a practiced hand dancing across keys. There are many surprising passages, and every note shines in the full light of Landini's musical intelligence and sensitivity. It is all we can ask of any composer.

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