Rondeau

Rondeau (French, “rondo”), one of several fixed forms in French poetry and song, popular from the 13th to the 16th century. Possibly originating as sung accompaniment for a round dance with a chorus of singers and a soloist, early rondeaux were written by such French poet-composers as Guillaume de Machaut. The early form had eight lines, of which the first two formed a refrain repeated in the middle and at the end of the poem; only two rhymes were used.

The earliest-known rondeaux with polyphonic music were composed by the trouvèreAdam de la Halle. The 14th-century poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut wrote fewer than 30 rondeaux, yet they are the most varied and inventive body of his musical output.

By the 15th century, the literary rondeau, in the hands of such a poet as François Villon, began to be differentiated from the sung form. The standard literary form consists of 13 tetrameter lines divided into three stanzas, still built on only two rhymes; an unrhymed refrain, formed from the opening words of the first line, ends the second and third stanzas. Related verse forms are the rondel and the triolet, which employs the original eight-line form. In the 19th century the rondeau was revived by several British and French poets.

For the 17th- and 18th-century musical rondeau, see Rondo.