Rondeau

As Printed on a Score

Printed as a movement title or heading, often with a tempo (Rondeau. Allegro) or a genre (Rondeau en polonaise); within the music, sections may be labelled refrain and couplet, with repeat signs or D.C. directions sending players back to the refrain.

How Composers Use It

The French Baroque rondeau alternates a fixed refrain with couplets — Couperin wrote many for harpsichord — and is the ancestor of the Classical rondo; Mozart still wrote Rondeau over some rondo movements. Keep the refrain short and harmonically closed so each return lands as an arrival, and give each couplet its own key, texture or figure.

Example

Mozart, Piano Sonata in B-flat major, K. 281, third movement: headed “Rondeau” with the tempo “Allegro”.

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