English

Noun

rondeau ‎(plural rondeaux or rondeaus)

1. A fixed form of verse based on two rhyme sounds and consisting usually of 13 lines in three stanzas with the opening words of the first line of the first stanza used as an independent refrain after the second and third stanzas.
   • 1914, Theodore Watts-Dunton, Poetry and The Renascence of Wonder, page 198,

     Though we have the English rondels of Occleve and a set of rondeaus in the Rolliad (written by Dr. Lawrence, the friend of Burke, according to Mr. Edmund Gosse, who has given us an admirable essay upon exotic forms of verse), […] .

   • 1991, Doranne Fenoaltea, David Lee Rubin, The Ladder of High Designs, page 50,

     First of all, the two rondeaux appear in the 1538 version of the previously published Adoleseenee Clementine at the end of the section of poems of the same genre.

2. A monophonic song with a 2-part refrain.
   • 1968, American Musicological Society, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Volumes 21-22, page 434,

     Still should not reference perchance be made to the rondeaus [which?] C. P. E. Bach presented in his last sonata collection?

   • 1986, Richard L. Crocker, A History of Musical Style, page 125,

     The rondeaus show great variety. There are two very short, apparently primitive rondeaus a 3.

   • 2009, Iain Fenlon, Early Music History: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music, Volume 1, page 61,

     […] for example, we might be tempted to think that his rondeaux also explore atypical compositional procedures.

Translations

French

Etymology

From Old French rondel, diminutive of ront.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʁɔ̃.do/

Noun

rondeau m ‎(plural rondeaux)

1. (poetry) rondeau
2. (music) rondo

Middle French

Noun

rondeau m (plural rondeaulx)

1. (poetry) rondeau