A carnival song or ''canto carnascialesco'' ( pl. ''canti carnascialeschi'') was a late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century song used to celebrate the

carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

season in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, mainly the weeks preceding

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

and the Calendimaggio, which lasted from May 1 to June 24. The festivities included song and dance, usually performed or led by

mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practic ...

ed professionals. The carnival song was elaborated under the rule of

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

Lorenzo the Magnificent Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...

(1469–92) and the ducal court became more involved. Lorenzo wrote

lyric poems Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

designed to be sung by members of his court and of the city's guilds, whose members also sang their own songs, with lyrics drawn mostly from popular legend and daily life. These ''canti'' are the textual descendants of the '' caccia'', a song form that was typically

satiric Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

and

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...

, revelling in the

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

. The musical settings were generally chordal and

strophic 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, ...

(often ABBC), similar to the

frottola The frottola (; plural frottole) was the predominant type of Italian popular secular song of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It was the most important and widespread predecessor to the madrigal. The peak of activity in compositio ...

, which was then popular in

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

. The A and B stanzas were typically in common metre, the final stanza was then in perfect (i.e. 3/4) time. Performance outdoors and before popular audiences probably constrained the music to be simple and unsubtle. These songs were usually serenades, chariot songs, and processionals, often song from

parade float A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle like a truck or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as those of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Carnival in São Paulo, the Carnival of Viareggio, the Ma ...

s. Though we know that

Heinrich Isaac Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450 – 26 March 1517) was a Netherlandish Renaissance composer of south Netherlandish origin. He wrote masses, motets, songs (in French, German and Italian), and instrumental music. A significant contemporary of Josquin de ...

composed ''canti carnascialeschi'' for Lorenzo around 1480, none of these works survive. One anonymous surviving song, ''Orsu car' Signori'', is an

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

paid for by the guild of

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

s: "Step up, dear sirs, if you wish your bulls quickly certified." The fate of many of the ''canti'' was sealed by the fall of the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

and the

Bonfire of the Vanities A bonfire of the vanities ( it, falò delle vanità) is a burning of objects condemned by religious authorities as occasions of sin. The phrase itself usually refers to the bonfire of 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican friar G ...

(and the like) under

Girolamo Savonarola Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of ...

. Some melodies escaped destruction by being set to new (sacred) words. The ''canti'', with the carnivals, were restored after Savonarola's downfall in 1498, but they were increasing ceremonial in character and the exercise of writing songs for them became more literary.

Sources

*Grout, Donald Jay, and Palisca, Claude V. (2001). ''A History of Western Music'', 6th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. . *"Carnival song". (2008). In ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 30 August 2008, fro
''Encyclopædia Britannica Online''
{{Authority control Renaissance music Carnival music