(Fr.: ‘fixed forms’).
Poetic forms, particularly of the 14th and 15th centuries, that directly affected the musical forms of practically all song settings of the period. For French song the main such forms are: the ballade, particularly important in the 14th century (see Ballade (i)); the rondeau, which became by far the predominant form in the 15th century (see Rondeau (i)); and the Virelai, which had something of a career in the 14th century but was then dropped until its revival in the middle of the 15th century. All three involve complex repetition patterns with a refrain and music in two main sections (see Ouvert). According to the early 15th-century Reigles de la seconde rhetorique (ed. E. Langlois, Recueil d’arts de seconde rhétorique, Paris, 1902, p.12), it was Philippe de Vitry who first used them. But all three forms can be found in one shape or another in the monophonic songs of the 13th century and earlier. Moreover, none of Vitry’s songs has been identified: the earliest coherent such repertory is in the work of Guillaume de Machaut, who composed 42 ballades, 22 rondeaux and 33 virelais. Some time very late in the 15th century all three formes fixes were abandoned by composers, though traces of their design can be heard in French music through the first half of the 16th century, and the rondeau in particular continued to be cultivated by poets.
Slightly different versions of these forms were cultivated in the song repertories of other European languages. In mid-14th-century Italian music, the madrigal is important (see Madrigal, §1) but was largely replaced by the Ballata, a form closely related to the virelai. Other forms related to the virelai include the 13th-century Spanish Cantiga, the 15th-century English Carol, the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish Canción and Villancico, and the Italian Barzelletta (see also Frottola). The German Bar form is loosely related to the ballade. All of these are sometimes called formes fixes.
See also Chanson.
DAVID FALLOWS