Rondo
The rondo is a
The rondo form emerged in the
Rondo form, also known in English by its French spelling rondeau, should not be confused with the unrelated and similarly named forme fixe rondeau; a 14th- and 15th-century French poetic and chanson form. While the origins of rondo form come from Italian opera, the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, who is sometimes referred to as the father of the rondo or rondeau form, and his contemporaries, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières and Louis Couperin popularized the rondo form in France in the 17th century. These composers were succeeded in the later Baroque period by French composers Jean-Marie Leclair, François Couperin, and most importantly Jean-Philippe Rameau who continued to be important exponents of music compositions utilizing rondo form. Lully was the first composer to utilize a two-couplet design to his rondo structure, a technique he did not consistently adopt but which was later adopted and standardized by Rameau whose construction of the rondo was codified by the 17th century music theorist Jean Du Breuil in what became known as the French rondeau.[2]
These French composers employed rondo form in a wide range of media, including
By the beginning of the
In the 19th century composers in the Romantic period continued to use the form with some regularity.[2] Some Romantic era composers to produce music utilizing rondo form include Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Rondo form has continued to be used by some 20th-century and 21st-century composers; most often by those with a Neoclassical aesthetic or by those composers referencing classical music composition in some fashion. Some 20th century composers to utilize rondo form include Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, Duke Ellington, Alberto Ginastera, Paul Hindemith, and Sergei Prokofiev.[2]
Etymology
The English word rondo comes from the Italian form of the French rondeau, which means "a little
In France, the word rondeau was first used in the Medieval and Renaissance periods to refer to the 'forme fixe rondeau'; a type of poetic and chanson form extant to France in the late 13th through 15th centuries.[5] It originally developed as monophonic music (in the 13th century) and then as polyphonic music (in the 14th century). It disappeared from the repertoire by the beginning of the 16th century.[6][7][8] Along with the formes fixes ballade and virelai, the forme fixe rondeau was limited to only vocal music due to its use within the specific context of French language poetry.[5]
The forme fixe rondeau is entirely unrelated to the later musical form rondeau, which emerged principally in mid 17th century France but had its origins in Italian opera of the late 16th and early 17th century.[2] It is this later music form which is now known as rondo in English.[2] In the 18th century the term Round O, an English corruption of the French word ‘rondeau’, was also sometimes used in the English language to refer to the musical form rondeau. The term Round O was used in several 18th century English publications, including Jeremiah Clarke’s Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinett (London, 1711) and John Hoyle’s A Complete Dictionary of Music (London, 1770). In James Grassineau 's A Musical Dictionary (1740) the term Round O was defined as an alternative spelling of rondeau.[9]
Definition and historical development
A | B | A | C | A | B' | A | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Major key | I | -V or V | I | VI, IV or parallel minor |
I | I | I |
Minor key | I | III or V |
I | VI or IV | I | I | I |
In rondo form, a principal
Origins in Italian opera
Writers on the origin of the rondo form have made connections to the use and development of ritornello in early Italian opera at the very end of the 16th century and early 17th century.[2] While rondo form is similar to ritornello form, it is different in that ritornello form typically brings back the subject or main theme in a paraphrase of that theme through the use of fragments from previous musical passages and in different keys; whereas the rondo brings back its theme complete and in the same key.[2]
Ritornello, meaning 'return' in Italian, has its origins in 15th century
The use and development of ritornello in the aria served a practical purpose; as the structure was used to clearly separate vocal sections of the aria from the instrumental preludes, interludes or postludes within the composition. Repeating or paraphrasing instrumental music in the structure of the aria provided a felicitous dramatic structure which could facilitate character entrances and exits, emphasize dramatic intent, or could provide music used with scene transformations or even accompaniments for dances.[12] Ultimately, the use of ritornello in Italian opera led to the creation of some early Italian arias and opera choruses which follow a traditional rondo form in which the main theme is repeated in its entirety and in the same key. The earliest example of this is within Jacopo Peri's Euridice (1600) in which the choruses "Al canto al ballo" and "Sospirate aure celesti" are arranged using a rondo structure.[2] These early examples use a multi-couplet rondo or chain rondo (ABACAD) now known as the Italian rondo.[2]
Rondeau form in French Baroque music
The rondo form, usually referred to in English using the French spelling rondeau when applied to French music, was a popular form in France from the mid to late 17th century and into the 18th century.
Three other important early rondeau composers of the Baroque period included Jacques Champion de Chambonnières and the brothers Louis Couperin and François Couperin; all of whom wrote several rondeau for keyboard.[2] Chambonnières composed a French rondeau for keyboard in F major simply titled Rondeau, and also composed many chaconnes-rondeaux; some of which follow the two-couplet design of the French rondeau but others displaying up to as many as five couplets.[2] Louis Couperin was also experimental with the number of couplets he employed in his rondeau compositions; usually using three or four couplets in his rondeau construction. Louis's Passacaille for harpsichord has a nine couplet rondeau form.[2] François Couperin was the leading and most prolific French Baroque composer of rondeau composed for the harpsichord.[2]
In the late part of the Baroque period, the composer Jean-Marie Leclair was a particularly innovative composer within the French rondeau form; especially within his aria movements for violin. Leclair was one the earliest composers to change metre and tempo within a couplet such as in his op.1 no.9, Allegro ma non presto, and to contain a rondeau within a rondeau in the final couplet as in his opus 1 number 1, Aria.[2]
Spread of the rondeau form internationally
The music of French Baroque composers like Lully and Rameau spread across Europe and influenced composers across the continent beginning in the late 17th century.
Rondo and sonata form
A common expansion of rondo form is to combine it with sonata form, to create the sonata rondo form. Here, the second theme acts in a similar way to the second theme group in sonata form by appearing first in a key other than the tonic and later being repeated in the tonic key. Unlike sonata form, thematic development does not need to occur except possibly in the coda.
Examples of rondo form
- Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, last movement
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11, last movement, nicknamed "Rondo alla turca"
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Rage Over a Lost Penny
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Rondo for piano and orchestra, WoO, 6
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op. 13, last movement
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, last movement
- Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, third movement
- Antonín Dvořák: Rondo for Cello and Orchestra
- Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 6, second movement
- Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, third movement
- Aram Khachaturian: Violin Concerto, second movement
- Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5, fourth movement
Character type
Rondo as a character-type (as distinct from the form) refers to music that is fast and vivacious – normally
Other usages
A well-known operatic vocal genre of the late 18th century, referred to at that time by the same name but distinguished today in English and German writing by the differently accented term "rondò" is cast in two parts, slow-fast.[13]
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2.
- ^ .
- ^ "rondo (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
- .
- ^ .
- ^ Hoppin 1978, pp. 296–297.
- ^ Hoppin 1978, pp. 426–429.
- .
- .
- ISBN 0-13-033233-X.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2.
- ^ .
- ^ Don Neville, "Rondò", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols., edited by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1992).
Sources
- ISBN 0-393-09090-6.
External links
- Rondo and Ritornello Forms in Tonal Music
- Rondo form in traditional marches from Limoux' carnival
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Rondeau". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
- "
- Audio, Rondeau on Pierre-Montan Berton, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie , Reinhard Goebelconducting