BALLAD
Although ballad has been used as a translation for the French word ballade, the ballad was a different type of musical piece. Originally similar to the ballade in its form and function as music for folk dancing, by the 14th century the ballad had become almost exclusively a narrative folk song performed solo. These were (and are) songs for storytelling, each stanza expressing a stage in the narrative. Their poetic meter is most often iambic or trochaic, and the verse patterns are closely intertwined with the melodies.
BALLADE
The ballade was a French medieval poetic form set to music, usually with the scheme AAB, and very popular during the 15th century to accompany dancing. This musical form consisted of three stanzas, all with the same refrain. Although ballades were written to celebrate patrons or commemorate historic events, their most common use by far was for love songs.
CHANSON
Chanson, French for “song,” referred to several types of vocal music and could include virtually any secular composition. Examples are drinking songs and sophisticated songs performed at court. While the fixed forms of ballade, rondeau, and virelai gradually died out, the more inventive chanson became increasingly popular during the 16th century. The Parisian chanson, which developed during the 1530s and 1540s, gave a new elegance and simplicity to the structure of the chanson. With no fixed rhyme scheme, the Parisian chanson of the 16th century allowed for musical repetitions with greater freedom of expression.
Madrigal
The vocal polyphony of madrigals became very much appreciated during the 16th century, beginning in the Italian Peninsula and spreading all the way to England. Many of the early madrigals featured poems in the style of Petrarch set to music in a stately cadence (see chapter 5, Literature and Language). Later in the century madrigals were written with more chromatic and dramatic expressiveness. The later madrigals allowed both composers and performers to lengthen a phrase, lighten the texture, or vary the song in some other way to delight or respond to the audience. Almost any genre of poetry was fair game—erotic, pastoral, epic, philosophical, and others. Madrigals were a favorite genre of Elizabeth I’s (1533-1603), popularized in England by Thomas Morley (1557/58-1602), a student of William Byrd’s. Although most composers of madrigals were men, several women were famous during their lifetime for writing madrigals and other secular music; they usually were also talented singers who wrote much of their own music. Four madrigals by Maddalena Casulana (c. 1540-c. 90) included in an anthology published in 1566 were the first pieces of music by a woman to appear in print. By the 1580s, virtuoso female singers of madrigals were welcomed at many of the Italian courts.
Motet
Motet was a very general musical term during the Middle Ages, and the motet developed into an important genre for polyphonic compositions during the Renaissance. In structure, the medieval
Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe
Motet usually featured a tenor voice sustaining the rhythmic base while higher voices sung the words at a somewhat faster speed. By the 15th century, motets of several types featured structures of various degrees of complexity, with three or more sections of tenor voices and with instruments paired with voices.
RONDEAU
The rondeau was a song with a refrain, from the idea of ronde (round) as the refrain came back around at the end of each verse. Rondeaux were the dominant fixed form of song in western Europe during the 15th century, and their circular structure reflected the dances for which they were originally intended. The refrain was the focus of the song, using the complete melodic line even though its text was often quite short.
VILLANCICO
The villancico (from the word for peasant) was Spanish popular verse set to music. Madrigals influenced polyphonic additions during the 16th century. Although villancicos used traditional melodies, their poetic structure was quite flexible. Their content became more spiritual toward the end of the 16th century under the influence of the Counter-Reformation. (Today a villancico is simply a song for Christmas.)
VIRELAI
The virelai was a French medieval poetic form set to music, usually ABBAA, popular during the 15 th century. It may have originated from Arabic songs transmitted by Provencal troubadours during the 12 th century. With virer (to twist) as its root word, the virelai was closely related to dance. This genre can be distinguished from the ballade by its refrain of several lines, placed in the first section of the music.
World History
