Ballata

Article summary

The ballata (plural: ballate) is an Italian poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. The term comes from the verb ballare, to dance, and the form certainly began as dance music. It has the musical form AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar to the French musical 'forme fixe' virelai (and not the ballade as the name might otherwise suggest). The repeated "A" is called the ripresa, the "b" lines are piedi (feet) or mutazione, while the fourth line is called a "volta". Additional piedi and volte can be added to create longer ballate in the forms such as AbbaAbbaA, etc. Unlike the virelai, the two "b" lines usually have exactly the same music and only in later ballate pick up the (formerly distinctly French) first and second (open and close) endings. Ballate are classified according to the length of the ripresa. The most common form is the ballata piccola (one 11-syllable line). Longer 11-syllable forms include the ballata minore (two-line ripresa), ballata mezzana (three-line), and ballata grande (four-line). The shortest form, the ballata minima, has a single 7-syllable ripresa. The ballata was one of the most prominent secular musical forms during the trecento, the period often known as the Italian ars nova.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.