Literally "song" in Italian, a '' canzone'' (, plural: ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

song or

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance music, Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque music, Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The Polyphony, polyphoni ...

. Sometimes a composition which is simple and songlike is designated as a canzone, especially if it is by a non-Italian; a good example is the aria "Voi che sapete" from

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' ( opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It pre ...

. The term canzone is also used interchangeably with canzona, an important Italian instrumental form of the late 16th and early 17th century. Often works designated as such are ''canzoni da sonar''; these pieces are an important precursor to the sonata. Terminology was lax in the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

and early Baroque music periods, and what one composer might call "canzoni da sonar" might be termed "canzona" by another, or even " fantasia". In the work of some composers, such as

Paolo Quagliati Paolo Quagliati (c. 1555 – 16 November 1628) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era and a member of the Roman School of composers. He was a transitional figure between the late Renaissance style and the earliest Baroque and was one ...

, the terms seem to have had no formal implication at all. Derived from the

'' canso'', the very lyrical and original Italian canzone consists of 5 to 7 stanzas typically set to music, each stanza resounding the first in rhyme scheme and in number of lines (7 to 20 lines). The canzone is typically hendecasyllabic (11 syllables). The ''congedo'' or ''commiato'' also forms the pattern of the Provençal ''tornado'', known as the French ''envoi'', addressing the poem itself or directing it to the mission of a character, originally a personage. Originally delivered at the Sicilian court of Emperor Frederick II during the 13th century of the Middle Ages, the lyrical form was later commanded by Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and leading Renaissance writers such as Spenser (the marriage hymn in his ''Epithalamion'').

Minnesang

The canzone (German "Kanzone") is the characteristic

strophic form Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

Minnesang (; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who w ...

, the

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...

lyric genre. In Minnesang, the canzone follows the tri-partite structure of the Provençal canso: two metrically identical ''Stollen'' ("supports") form the ''Aufgesang'' (literally "up-song"), which is followed by a metrically distinct ''Abgesang'' ("down-song"). The following rules generally apply: * each line in the first Stollen rhymes with the matching line in the second * the Abgesang introduces new rhymes and may contain a non-rhyming line * the Abgesang is longer than a single Stollen but shorter than the entire Aufgesang. This basic pattern is typical of early Minnesang. As the genre develops, more complex forms are found. For example, one of Neithart's Winter Songs, "Winder, dîniu meil" (No. 32), has a 14-line canzone with the rhyme scheme a b c d , a b c d , , e e f g f g. The earliest canzone in Minnesang date from the late 12th Century and are part of the more general influence of the Romance lyric.

Notes

References and further reading

* * "Canzone", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. * ''The New Harvard Dictionary of Music'', ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. * "Canzone", in ''The Shapes of our Singing'', a comprehensive guide to verse forms and metres from around the world, by Robin Skelton. EWU, Spokane, WA, 2002. {{ISBN, 0-910055-76-9 Medieval music genres Renaissance music Baroque music Song forms

Minnesang

See also

Notes

References and further reading