Dictionary:
vir·e·lay or vir·e·lai (vîr'ə-lā') 
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[Middle English virelai, from Old French, alteration (influenced by lai, lay) of vireli, song refrain.]
| Music Encyclopedia: Virelai |
One of the three fixed forms (with the ballade and the rondeau) that dominated French song and poetry in the 14th and 15th centuries. Its musical structure is ABBA (disregarding subtleties of rhyme and metre in the text). It may be descended from 11th-century Arabic song-types; or its source (and that of courtly song in general) may be the musico-literary patterns of the liturgy. ‘Virelai’ comes from Old French virer (‘to turn’, ‘to twist’), confirming its dance origins, at least in France. The distinction between the early virelai and the ballade lies in the refrain, which in the virelai is normally several lines long and occupies the entire first musical section, whereas in the ballade the refrain is commonly only one line and appears at the close of the second. By the 14th century it was established with the following features: a refrain several lines long (A); two sets of matching text (BB); repetition of the refrain (A). In the 14th century metrical patterns became more complex. The virelai's principal topic is courtly love; the ‘realistic virelai’ often portrayed love with imagery from the hunt or the battle, which encouraged musical painting. The virelai was cultivated less than the ballade and rondeau; Machaut set 33 virelais, only eight of them polyphonically.
| Literary Dictionary: virelay |
virelay
| Poetry Glossary: Virelay |
An ancient French verse form consisting of stanzas of indeterminate length and number, with alternating long and short lines and an interlaced rhyme scheme, as abab bcbc cdcd dada.
| Wikipedia: Virelai |
A virelai is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three formes fixes (the others were the ballade and the rondeau), and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the late thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.
A virelai is similar to a rondeau. Each stanza has two rhymes, the end rhyme recurring as the first rhyme of the following stanza. The overall musical structure is almost invariably ABBA, with the first and last sections having the same lyrics; this is the same form as the Italian ballata. The first stanza is known as the estribillo, the next two as mudanzas, and the fourth as the vuelta.
One of the most famous composers of virelai is Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377), who also wrote his own verse; 33 separate compositions in the form survive by him. Other composers of virelai include Jehannot de l'Escurel, one of the earliest (d. 1304), and Guillaume Dufay (c.1400–1474), one of the last.
By the mid-15th century, the form had become largely divorced from music, and numerous examples of this form (as well as the ballade and the rondeau) were written, which were either not intended to be set to music, or for which the music has not survived.
"Douce Dame Jolie" by Guillaume de Machaut
English Example:
"People I Once Knew" by Eric Armentrout
The example is taken from the German version of this page.
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 | Rondelet |
| Refrain |
| List of literary terms |
Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Poetry Glossary. Copyright © 2007, ILOVEPOETRY, Inc, All Rights Reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Virelai". Read more |
