The rondo, also called the rondeau, is a musical structure that features a main theme, often referred to as the "refrain." This theme is repeated and alternates with one or more different sections, called "episodes," "digressions," or "couplets." Common patterns include ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, or ABACABA, where "A" represents the refrain.

The rondo form began during the Baroque period and became more popular in the Classical period. The earliest examples of this form appear in Italian operatic arias and choruses from the early 17th century. These early works used a multi-couplet rondo, known as the Italian rondo, with a pattern like ABACAD. The rondo, or rondeau, should not be confused with the unrelated 14th- and 15th-century French poetic form called the "forme fixe rondeau."

Although the rondo originated in Italian opera, it was the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, along with his contemporaries Jacques Champion de Chambonnières and Louis Couperin, who helped spread the form in France during the 17th century. Later Baroque composers such as Jean-Marie Leclair, François Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau continued to use the rondo. Lully introduced a two-couplet structure to the rondo, a method later refined and standardized by Rameau. This structure was described by the 17th-century music theorist Jean Du Breuil and became known as the French rondeau.

French composers used the rondo in many types of music, including opera, ballet, choral music, art songs, orchestral music, chamber music, and solo instrumental works. The form became popular internationally in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, adopted by composers such as Henry Purcell in England and Johann Sebastian Bach in Germany. While Bach’s rondos followed the earlier French style, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was more innovative, creating thirteen unique rondos that made him a key figure in the form during the late Baroque and early Classical periods.

By the start of the Classical period in 1750, the rondo was widely used across Europe. It became most popular in the late 18th century, often used as a single movement in larger works like concertos and serenades, and less frequently in symphonies and chamber music. Independent rondos were also written, often as virtuoso pieces. Composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven used the rondo form, contributing to its development in the Classical period. These composers also helped create the sonata rondo form, which combined elements of sonata form with the rondo structure.

During the 19th century, Romantic-era composers continued to use the rondo form. Examples include Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The rondo form has been used by some 20th- and 21st-century composers, often by those with a Neoclassical style or who wanted to reference classical music. Composers who used the rondo in the 20th century include Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, Duke Ellington, Alberto Ginastera, Paul Hindemith, and Sergei Prokofiev.

Etymology

The English word "rondo" comes from the Italian version of the French word "rondeau," which means "a little round." Today, "rondo" is commonly used in English to describe any musical piece, whether sung or played on an instrument, that includes a main theme that repeats and is followed by one or more different themes. Some composers from English- and German-speaking countries have also used the French term "rondeau" instead of "rondo" when writing music in a French style.

In France, the word "rondeau" was first used during the Medieval and Renaissance periods to describe the "forme fixe rondeau," a type of poem and song that was popular in France from the late 1200s to the 1500s. It began as music with a single melody (in the 1200s) and later became music with multiple melodies (in the 1300s). By the early 1500s, this form was no longer used. Along with other fixed forms like the "ballade" and "virelai," the "forme fixe rondeau" was only used in vocal music because it was tied to French poetry.

The "forme fixe rondeau" is not related to the later musical form called "rondeau," which developed in France during the mid-1600s but had roots in Italian opera from the late 1500s and early 1600s. This later form is now known as "rondo" in English. In the 1700s, the English version of the French word "rondeau," called "Round O," was sometimes used in English texts to describe the musical form. This term appeared in works such as Jeremiah Clarke’s Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinett (1711) and John Hoyle’s A Complete Dictionary of Music (1770). In James Grassineau’s A Musical Dictionary (1740), "Round O" was described as another way to spell "rondeau."

Definition and historical development

In rondo form, a main theme, often called the "refrain," is repeated and alternates with one or more different themes, which are sometimes called "episodes," "digressions," or "couplets." Common patterns include ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, or ABACABA. The ABACA pattern is known as a "five-part rondo," the ABACAB and ABACBA patterns are sometimes called "six-part rondo," and the ABACABA pattern is known as a "seven-part rondo." The number of themes can vary depending on the piece, and the main theme is sometimes decorated or made shorter to create variation. A well-known example of rondo form is Beethoven's "Für Elise," which follows the ABACA pattern.

Some music writers believe the rondo form developed from the use of ritornello in early Italian opera at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. While rondo form is similar to ritornello form, they are different. Ritornello form typically brings back a theme by using parts of it in different keys, while rondo form brings back the main theme fully and in the same key.

The word "ritornello" means "return" in Italian and originated in 15th-century madrigals, where repeating parts of a song was a common feature. When opera began in Italy, ritornello was used in arias and chorus sections of operas. It was also used in instrumental music, such as preludes, interludes, or postludes. Ritornello was later used in concertos in the early 18th century, after the rondo form became popular in France during the 17th century.

In Italian opera, ritornello helped separate vocal sections from instrumental parts. Repeating or reworking instrumental music in arias made it easier to transition between scenes, emphasize dramatic moments, or accompany dances. This practice led to the creation of early Italian arias and choruses that followed a rondo structure, where the main theme was repeated fully in the same key. An example is Jacopo Peri's opera Euridice (1600), which includes choruses arranged in a rondo pattern known as a "multi-couplet rondo" or "chain rondo" (ABACAD), now called the "Italian rondo."

The rondo form, often called "rondeau" in French music, was popular in France from the mid-17th century through the 18th century. French Baroque composers used rondo form in many types of music, including opera, ballet, choral music, art songs, orchestral music, and solo instrument works. Jean-Baptiste Lully is sometimes called the "father of the rondeau" because he used a two-couplet design in his rondo structures. Later, Jean-Philippe Rameau's version of the rondo became standard, as described by music theorist Jean Du Breuil in the 17th century. Examples of Lully's rondo include pieces from his ballet Intermède de Xerxes (1660) and opera Armide (1686).

Other important French Baroque composers who wrote rondo pieces include Jacques Champion de Chambonnières and the Couperin brothers, Louis and François. These composers wrote many rondo pieces for keyboard instruments. Chambonnières composed a rondo in F major titled Rondeau and also created chaconnes-rondeaux with varying numbers of couplets. Louis Couperin often used three or four couplets in his rondo compositions, while François Couperin was the most prolific French Baroque composer of rondo pieces for the harpsichord.

In the late Baroque period, Jean-Marie Leclair was an innovative composer of French rondo pieces, especially in his violin arias. He used changes in rhythm and tempo within a couplet and even included a rondo within a rondo in some of his works.

French Baroque music, including rondo forms by composers like Lully and Rameau, influenced musicians across Europe starting in the late 17th century. In England, Henry Purcell used the rondo form in a piece for the play Abdelazer (1676). In Germany, composers such as Georg Muffat, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, and Johann Sebastian Bach incorporated French rondo techniques into their music. For example, Bach used rondo form in works like the Passepied I from his English Suite No. 5 and the Rondeaux from his Partita No. 2 for Keyboard.

A variation of rondo form is the "sonata rondo," which combines elements of rondo and sonata forms. In this structure, the second theme first appears in a key other than the main key and later returns in the main key. Unlike sonata form, thematic development is not required except in the final section, called the coda.

Examples of compositions using rondo form include:
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, last movement
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11, last movement ("Rondo alla turca")
– Ludwig van Beethoven: Rage Over a Lost Penny
– Ludwig van Beethoven: Rondo for Piano and Orchestra, WoO, 6
– Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op. 13, last movement
– Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, last movement
– Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, third movement
– Antonín Dvořák: Rondo for Cello and Orchestra
– Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 6, second movement
– Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, third

Character type

Rondo, when referring to the style (not the structure), is music that is fast and lively, usually in the tempo called Allegro. Many classical rondos include music that sounds like popular or folk tunes. Music labeled as "rondo" usually follows both the structure and the style. However, some pieces are in rondo structure but have a slower, more thoughtful style. An example is Mozart's Rondo in A minor, K. 511, which is marked Andante.

Other usages

A well-known type of operatic singing from the late 18th century was called by the same name back then. Today, it is written with a different accent in English and German as "rondò." This style has two parts: one slow and one fast.