Introduction
Refrain forms are common in our western music history. We can refer to the medieval refrain formes, the so called 'formes fixes' as virelai or ballate or to Sheila Davis (1990), a writer on pop-song theory, who after more than thousand years of refrain music still spends some words on the musical and lyrical purpose of the refrain. Refrain forms or better ritornello forms are basic structural entities of baroque music.

Ritornello is Italian for 'Return' and is a basic concept of baroque forms, in function comparable to the 'refrain'. The classical rondo form can be seen as a transformation of the baroque ritornello form.

Audio
  • www.naxosmusiclibrary.com > Ritornello > Vivaldi Concerto Grosso
  • Many audio examples can be found with Spotify (spotify.com)
Ritornello
Ritornello: basic element in baroque forms

A ritornello is a recurring passage, in most cases instrumental. We find the ritornello as structural entity in baroque music, as concerto and concerto grosso (first and last movement), opera, the opening choirs of cantatas (Bach, BWV 140) and the 'da capo aria' of opera and cantata. In his German songs (Neue Arien, 1676), Adam Krieger composed after each verse an instrumental ritornello or interlude.

Form
Basically, the forms based on a ritornello can be described as:

R-E-R-E'-R-E'' (R = Ritornello and E = Episode or Couplet)

In the solo concerto this pattern can be translated to 'tutti-solo-tutti-solo-tutti' pattern, with the ritornello being the 'tutti' section.

Instrumental
In vocal pieces, the ritornelli are in normal cases played by an instrumental ensemble. In the instrumental ritornello pieces as concerto grosso, the ritornelli are played by the tutti (all instruments together in contrast to the more solist section, the concertino).

Incomplete repetition
The ritornello can be repeated incomplete. So the recurring ritornelli are not always identical and literal repetitions.

Tonality
In almost all cases the intermediate ritornelli are in nearly-related keys (tonic, dominant and/or relative major) and the final ritornello is in the tonic.

What a ritornello does?
First of all, ritornelli are responsible for musical contrast (e.g. sound and dynamics: R = tutti/ripieno - E = concertino/solo). Second, ritornelli have always to do with a psychological process: ordering information by recognition.


Ritornello in baroque genres

Examples
  • Euridice of Giacopo Peri (first performed in 1600) begins with a prologue recited by Tragedia personified, consisting of seven verses set to a simple piece of declamatory melody, with a short and simple Ritornello at the end of each verse.
  • The dialogue in Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607) is constantly interspersed with sinfonias, ritornellos, choruses, and dances, but the composer endeavours to get variety of effect of a more subtle kind by diversifying the groups of instruments which play the ritornellos and accompaniments to the voice. Thus one ritornello is directed to be played by two chitarroni and clavicembalo, and two flutes. Another by five viole da braccio, a contrabasso, two gravicembalos, and three chitarroni.
  • Bach's da capo aria (A-B-A) no. 61 'Können Tränen meiner Wangen' from his Matthew Passion:

    1. Ritornello in G minor (bar 1 - 13)
    2. Episode, first solo, new material, modulating tot the relative major(bar 13 - 24)
    3. Ritornello in the relative major (bar 25 - 33)
    4. Episode, second solo, modulating back to tonic via C minor (bar 33 - 51)
    5. Ritornello, tonic, which closes this section A of the ternary aria
    6. Short section B and the return of A
  • Vivaldi, RV 293, 'L'Autunno', first movement from his 'Le quattro stagioni':

    R= Ritornello, R' = modified or shortened Ritornello, E = Episode

    1. R in F major (bar 1 - 13)
    2. E in F major (bar 14 - 27)
    3. R' in F major (bar 27 - 32)
    4. E in F major (bar 32 - 57)
    5. R' in G minor (bar 57 - 67)
    6. E in D minor (bar 67 - 77)
    7. R' in C major (bar 77 - 87)
    8. E in F major (bar 87 - 106)
    9. R in F major (bar 106 - 115)

    Note the contrasting music of E!
Remark
  • The final section of the fourteenth century madrigal was also called the ritornello, whichi thus a conclusion and not a return.
  • The function of the recurring passages in the rondo is more prominent in comparison to the ritornello in the baroque forms.