Rondeau, rondel. Fundamentally the rondel is a single-stanza lyric which opens and closes with a refrain whose first line (s) it repeats nearly half-way through. The form originated in songs accompanying a round dance perhaps associated with northern French May festivals—hence a chorus with somewhat constricting repetition. The AB | aA | ab | AB pattern of such rondets de carole (renamed triolets c.1488) enjoyed popularity from the 12th to 16th c. and in the late 18th and 19th c. The 14th-c. development of the ten-, eleven-, or thirteen-line rondel tercet (various patterns) and subsequent sixteen-line rondel quatrain (pattern generally: ABBA | abAB | abba | ABBA) led to the late 15th-c. rondeau, employed by Marot, Voiture, Voltaire, and Musset, which cut the refrain to the opening words, usually connected by sense to the previous line (pattern generally: Aabba | aab(A) | aabba(A)).
[Peter Davies]
