Virelai
French forme fixe in the pattern A bba A, in which a refrain (A) alternates with stanzas with the musical FORM bba, the a using the same music as the refrain.
Ballade
French forme fixe, normally in three stanzas, in which each stanza has the musical FORM aab and ends with a refrain.
Rondeau
French forme fixe with a single stanza and the musical form ABaAabAB, with capital letters indicating lines of refrain and lowercase letters indicating new text set to music from the refrain.
Caccia
One voice chases other. *Fourteenth-century Italian FORM featuring two voices in CANON over a free untexted TENOR.
Ballata
Treble dominated, 2-3 voices, a dance song. AbbaA *Fourteenth-century Italian song in which A is the refrain, and the single stanza consists of two piedi (bb) and a volta (a) sung to the music of the refrain.
Ars subtilior
Subtle, more refined art tailored towards the upper class, pushing rhythmic limits*Style of POLYPHONY from the late fourteenth or very early fifteenth centuries in southern France and northern Italy, distinguished by extreme complexity in rhythm and NOTATION
Syllabic text setting
One note sung per each syllable of text
Melismatic text setting
A long MELODIC passage sung to a single syllable of text.
Neumatic text setting
1-6 notes sung to each syllable of text
Madrigal
Generally aab form Fourteenth-century Italian satirical love poetic form and its musical setting having two or three stanzas