Ritornello

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Ritornello

In Baroque music

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
, ritornello was the word for a recurring passage for orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
in the first or final movement of a solo concerto

Solo concerto

A solo concerto is a concerto with only one soloist, accompanied by an orchestra. It is now the most frequent type of concerto, but originated in the Baroque Period as an alternative to the traditional concertino in a concerto grosso, to increase the contrast between the soloist and the orchestra....
or aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment....
(also in works for chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, in turn, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform....
). In ritornello form, the tutti

Musical terminology

This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian language , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions....
opens with a theme

Theme (music)

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In Baroque music

Baroque music

Orchestra

Solo concerto

Aria

Choir

A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, in turn, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform....
). In ritornello form, the tutti

Musical terminology

Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. It may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found ....
called the ritornello (refrain). This theme, always played by the tutti, returns in different keys throughout the movement. However, it usually returns in incomplete fragments. It was favoured by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Handel and was used frequently in concertos, chamber works and vocal and choral pieces, though most prominently in the solo concerto where it created a ‘tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti’ pattern, with the ritornello being the ‘tutti’ section. At the end of the movement, the entire ritornello returns in the home key. In a concerto grosso, the solo sections offer fresh melodic ideas, softer dynamics, rapid scales, and broken chords unlike the tutti. Soloists may also expand short melodic lines from the tutti.

When the classical music era started, the ritornello form was altered to resemble sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
, though it later transformed to become rondo

Rondo

Rondo, and its French language equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also in reference to a character-type that is distinct from the form....
form.

The final section of the fourteenth century madrigal was also called the ritornello and the ritornello technique was employed by Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli

Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organ . He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance music to Baroque music idioms....
in his 16th century motets. The instrumental interludes that occurred during operas in the early Baroque were also termed "ritornellos."

The Ritornello form can be found in many Baroque and Classical period music such as J.S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organ whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque music period and brought it to its ultimate maturity....
's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

Brandenburg concertos

The Brandenburg concerti by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 ....
. Other pieces in ritornello form include a sonata in F Major by Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
(using the form at a late date, as a classical period composer).

Beginning with the late Classical and extending through the duration of the Romantic era, the use of the ritornello construction faded with the advent of the far more standard classical concerto; however, with the advent of the 20th century and the general feeling of malaise within the composition field regarding the limits of form, the ritornello experienced an uptake in interest.