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formes fixes

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: formes fixes
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Principal forms of music and poetry in 14th- and 15th-century France. Three forms predominated. The rondeau followed the pattern ABaAabAB; A (a) and B (b) represent repeated musical phrases; capital letters indicate repetition of text in a refrain, while lowercase letters indicate new text. The ballade employed the pattern aabC. The virelai used the pattern AbbaA. The trouvère Adam de la Halle (b. c. 1250) wrote the first polyphonic settings of the formes fixes. Guillaume de Machaut wrote both text and music for many monophonic and polyphonic chansons in the formes fixes. Later composers, including Guillaume Dufay, favoured the rondeau.

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French Literature Companion: Formes fixes
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Term used to refer to the numerous set forms of verse which dominated medieval lyric poetry, and have continued to be used in more modern times, often playfully, with the aim of obtaining an archaic flavour. The most important are the ballade, vireli (virelai), rondel (rondeau), and chant royal. More recent formes fixes include the villanelle and above all the sonnet. A full list, with examples, can be found in H. Morier, Dictionnaire de poétique et de rhétorique (2nd edn., 1989).

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more