Virelai
A French fixed-form song alternating refrain and stanzas
Related
The virelai is one of the French fixed forms: its refrain is heard first and then returns after each stanza, so stanza and refrain alternate.
Within each stanza two endings are available, the ouvert and the clos; the first leads back to the refrain, the second closes the stanza. Machaut wrote both monophonic and polyphonic virelais, and the form was gradually displaced by the chanson in the fifteenth century. It was also called chanson baladée, a song for dancing.
The virelai is not the rondeau: the rondeau's refrain opens, closes and returns within the piece, while the virelai's refrain is fixed after each stanza. Nor is it the ballade, whose refrain appears only at the end of each stanza and never opens the song on its own.
Sources
- 法语维勒莱的叠句与诗节结构、马肖的写作及舞蹈歌别名，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Virelai"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.