rondeau

n., pl., -deaux (-dōz, -dōz').

1. A lyrical poem of French origin having 13 or sometimes 10 lines with two rhymes throughout and with the opening phrase repeated twice as a refrain.
2. A medieval French song, either monophonic, as in the songs of the trouvères, or polyphonic in construction.

[French, alteration of Old French rondel. See rondel.]

(RON-do)

noun
A poem of 13 lines with two rhymes and the opening words used as a refrain in two places.

Etymology
From Old French rondeau (little circle), from rondel, diminutive of rond (round). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ret- (to run or to roll) that is also the source of rodeo, rotunda, rotate, and roulette

Various forms of rondeaux may have 10 or 15 lines.

Usage
"If you are new to French forms, you might want to compose a rondeau or two before attempting the redouble." — Michael J Bugeja; The Fixed Is In; Writer's Digest (Cincinnati, Ohio); Mar 1998.

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For more information on rondeau, visit Britannica.com.

(1) One of the three fixed forms, together with the ballade and the virelai, that dominated French song and poetry in the 14th and 15th centuries. It had taken on its definitive structure by the early 13th century, when it was already a dance-song of importance. Its derivation from the Latin forms rotundettum or rotundellum implies circular motion in the dances for which such pieces were originally sung. The earliest dated rondeau is in a collection of courtly and popular songs of 1228, the essential features being the presence of a final refrain and the anticipation of the first part of this refrain in line two. Later the refrain was also introduced at the beginning of the poem, giving the form which was to remain the basis of the rondeau: I-II-I-I-I-II-I-II. This eight-line type is the most common in the late 13th and 14th centuries. Adam de la Halle's 14 three-voice settings in conductus style are the first polyphonic examples. It is distinguished from the virelai in that the rondeau refrain requires the whole melody, not simply part of it. This may explain why these refrains enjoyed an independent life and were inserted into other songs and motets. The rhyme and metre may vary, particularly in the early period; from Machaut onwards the eight- and 16-line type dominates, the 21-line type becoming popular in the 15th century when it outshone the other lyric forms. Like the virelai and ballade, the rondeau is generally concerned with courtly love, usually in a rather lighter vein. It was also used in religious drama.

(2) French term of the Baroque period for a composition based on the alternation of a main section (refrain, reprise, grand couplet or ‘rondeau’), with subsidiary sections (couplets, episodes); see Rondo. Rondeaux are common in harpsichord music, for example Couperin s; they also appear in dance music, as in Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie where there is a ‘Menuet en rondeau’. In England the corruption ‘Round O’ was common.

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rondeau, a medieval French verse form also used by some late 19th‐century poets in English. It normally consists of 13 octosyllabic lines, grouped in stanzas of five, three, and five lines. The whole poem uses only two rhymes, and the first word or phrase of the first line recurs twice as a refrain after the second and third stanzas. The standard rhyme scheme (with the unrhymed refrain indicated as R) is aabba aabR aabbaR. Variant forms of the rondeau include those using 10‐syllable lines and those having only 12 lines, but in all cases the refrain and the restriction to two rhymes are retained. An even more complicated form is the rondeau redoublé, a 24‐line poem also using only two rhymes in its six quatrains, with each line of the first stanza recurring in turn as the final line of the following stanzas until the poem's opening phrase recurs after the last line. See also rondel, roundel.

A fixed form used mostly in light or witty verse, usually consisting of fifteen octo - or decasyllabic lines in three stanzas, with only two rhymes used throughout. A word or words from the first part of the first line are used as a (usually unrhymed) refrain ending the second and third stanzas, so the rhyme scheme is aabba aabR aabbaR.

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