Canzona

(It. : ‘song’)

A type of instrumental composition of the 16th and 17th centuries (the word originally stood for an arrangement of a French polyphonic chanson). Canzonas typically begin with a dactylic rhythm (long-short-short) and are contrapuntal in texture. Among the earliest examples independent of vocal models are those of Merulo. The keyboard canzona, represented at its best by Frescobaldi, and the ensemble canzona, of which Giovanni Gabrieli wrote some brilliant examples, led respectively to the fugue and the sonata.

In Italy the standard spelling was, and remains, ‘canzone’. It also stands for a lyric poem by (or in imitation of) Petrarch and others, used for musical setting by frottola and madrigal composers of the 16th and 17th centuries, and for a simple tuneful song e.g. Cherubino's ‘Voi che sapete’ in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (which begins with the characteristic rhythm).

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In music, a canzona (also canzone) was a 16th-century multipart vocal setting of a literary canzone and a 16th- and 17th-century instrumental composition. At first based on Franco-Flemish polyphonic songs (chansons), later independently composed, the instrumental canzonas, such as the brass canzonas of Giovanni Gabrieli, influenced the fugue and were the direct ancestors of the sonata. See canzone.

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