Rondeau

Abstract The rondeau is obviously central to this book, though it gets the skimpiest treatment in the hands of literary scholars; and it had a longer history than even sonata form. The sheer quantity of rondeaux written by Charles d’Orléans and composed by Dufay stands as evidence that they thought there was still life in it over a century after the form emerged. Much discussion of the placing of main verbs and the necessary punctuation follows, along with the startling observation that Charles d’Orléans took an entirely different approach to the placing of main verbs as well as to variety of strophe forms after his return from prison in England in 1440. An outline of the difference between strophe and stanza as adopted (necessarily) in this book. Alain Chartier seems to have used a variety of terms to describe just a single form. But after 1400 it is often unclear whether the short refrain and the long refrain should be complete or reduced just to a rentrement. It is not often recognised that all the poems in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire were originally rondeaux. Shortened refrains in the music are commoner than many people think, with one example by Vide and two by Malbeque. The story continues with Binchois, with Ockeghem’s L’aultre d’antan, and works by later composers. Howard Garey and Howard Mayer Brown drew attention to the need for certain shortened refrains, but on balance their solutions appear to be unpractical.