rondeau: Meaning and Definition of

ron•deau

Pronunciation: (ron'dō, ron-dō'), [key]
— pl. -deaux
  1. a short poem of fixed form, consisting of 13 or 10 lines on two rhymes and having the opening words or phrase used in two places as an unrhymed refrain.
  2. a 13th-century monophonic song form consisting of two phrases, each repeated several times, and occurring in the 14th and 15th centuries in polyphonic settings.
  3. a 17th-century musical form consisting of a refrain alternating with contrasting couplets, developing in the 18th century into the sonata-rondo form.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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