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Concept
Rondo
Summary
The rondo is a musical form that contains a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes", but also occasionally referred to as "digressions" or "couplets". Some possible patterns include: ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, or ABACABA.
The rondo form emerged in the Baroque period and became increasingly popular during the Classical period. The earliest examples of compositions employing rondo form are found within Italian opera arias and choruses of the first years of the 17th century. These examples use a multi-couplet rondo or chain rondo (ABACAD) known as the Italian rondo.
Rondo form, also known in English by its French spelling rondeau, should not to be confused with the unrelated and similarly named forme fixe rondeau; a 14th- and 15th-century French poetic and chanson form. While the origins of rondo form come from Italian opera, the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, who is sometimes referred to as the father of the rondo or rondeau form, and his contemporaries, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières and Louis Couperin popularized the rondo form in France in the 17th century. These composers were succeeded in the later Baroque period by French composers Jean-Marie Leclair, François Couperin, and most importantly Jean-Philippe Rameau who continued to be important exponents of music compositions utilizing rondo form. Lully was the first composer to utilize a two-couplet design to his rondo structure, a technique he did not consistently adopt but which was later adopted and standardized by Rameau whose construction of the rondo was codified by the 17th century music theorist Jean Du Breuil in what became known as the French rondeau.
These French composers employed rondo form in a wide range of media, including opera, ballet, choral music, art songs, orchestral music, chamber music, and works for solo instrument. The French spread the popularity of the form internationally, and the rondo was soon adopted in the late 17th century and early 18th century by composers in other nations such as Henry Purcell in England and Johann Sebastian Bach in Germany.
Official source
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