What comes around … this week's rather shapely word circles culture in many directions – from medieval French poetry to a 17th-century musical form all the way to modern slang on sport stars to derogatory cars.
But the primary meaning is all about repeated refrain patterns, whether in words or music, creating ever more complex structures that tell an underlying narrative and help pull the listener in different directions, stimulating the intellect, and manipulating emotions, often reaching a feeling of satisfaction by arriving back at a primary phrase at the end. This is a primary essence of phrases in music in all forms, from medieval poems in ballads, through complex classical forms, to modern pop. The standard popular song structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, then chorus, is a very basic form of refrain in itself.
The English rondo is only a part equivalent to the French rondeau, the latter referring to a fixed form of poetry connected to chanson, in which particular lines are repeated to form an overall structure.
In poetry, the best known early example is "Doulz viaire gracieus" by medieval French poet Guillaume de Machaut, with a structure of ABaAabAB, with a triolet known as the rondeau simple, where the A and B are the main refrains and lower case letter refer to echoed rhymes. Here’s the French, and then the translation:
Doulz viaire gracieus,
de fin cuer vous ay servi.
Weillies moy estre piteus,
Doulz viaire gracieus,
Se je sui un po honteus,
ne me mettes en oubli:
Doulz viaire gracieus,
de fin cuer vous ay servi.
Sweet gracious face,
I have served you with a sincere heart.
If you will have pity on me,
sweet gracious face,
then if I am a bit shy,
do not embarrass me:
Sweet gracious face,
I have served you with a sincere heart.
One of the best known English rondeau examples is is the World War I poem, In Flanders Fields by John McCrae:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
There are many other more complex forms of more lines, varying from 13, 15 or even 21 lines, but all of these are designed to be set to music. In English, Geoffrey Chaucer used the rondeau at the end of The Parliament of Fowles. There is also the rondeau consisting of two four line quatrains followed by a quintet of five lines (making 13 lines total) or a six-line sestet (14 lines total).
This is however different to a roundel, a similar verse form with repeating refrain. It is a a form of verse devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) with this structure as shown in his first in the form, titled, The Roundel:
A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere, (A)
With craft of delight and with cunning of sound unsought, (B)
That the heart of the hearer may smile if to pleasure his ear (A)
A roundel is wrought. (R)
Its jewel of music is carven of all or of aught - (B)
Love, laughter, or mourning - remembrance of rapture or fear - (A)
That fancy may fashion to hang in the ear of thought. (B)
As a bird's quick song runs round, and the hearts in us hear (A)
Pause answer to pause, and again the same strain caught, (B)
So moves the device whence, round as a pearl or tear, (A)
A roundel is wrought. (R)
But then, all of this is different to a musical round. In a round song, three different voices sing the same tune, but starting in different places. The most famous examples are Row, Row, Row Your Boat, London Bridge is Falling Down, Frère Jacques, Three Blind Mice, and compared to those in relatively modern terms, the end part of God Only Knows by The Beach Boys.
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I'd be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you (God only knows)
God only knows what I'd be without you (what I'd be without you) etc ,,,
This then takes us back round to the rondo, a word that traverses many cultures and formats.
In classical music this refers to a musical refrain which is repeated in patterns that commonly ABA, ABACA, or ABACABA, with echoed repeats, sometimes in different keys, or with different instruments. Best known examples include the last movements of JS Bach's E major Violin Concerto, Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major, the third movement of Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, and the fourth movement of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. But Beethoven was perhaps the master of the form, experimenting it in all ways but using rigid discipline a the same time, and combining it with the sonata, such as in the the final movement his famous Sonata Pathétique:
Another famous Beethoven rondo, known to many trying to learn the instrument is "Für Elise", with an ABACA refrain structure. He its here performed tenderly and with great feeling, by Lang Lang:
There is also his Hungarian gypsy dance-inspired Rage Over A Lost Penny Op. 129, which was formally unfinished by the composer, but published after his death, here played rather impressively by the Czech pianist Natalie Schwamova:
Mozart was never one to miss out on playing with different forms. Here is the third movement of his Turkish march (Rondo Alla Turca) Piano Sonata No. 11 K. Op 331. It imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands, popularised at the time, with a structure of A–B–C–D–E–C–A–B–C, then a coda.
Stemming from Mozart, and taking us into the 20th century, Dave Brubeck and his quartet's Blue Rondo à la Turk, is a very popular jazz standard that first appeared on his album Time Out in 1959. While there are repeated phrases and a particular structure, the title is more about its rhythm, one influenced by Turkish street music.
In prog rock interpretations Keith Emerson regularly covered it too throughout his career, from as foundation of his "Rondo" beginning when he was with prog rock band The Nice, using it on the album The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, all the way through to his performances of classical music in large concert halls in the 1990s.
Moving now to a different angle, more of a lyrical one, Steely Dan's Third World Man, from the 1980 album Gaucho, and variously covered by other artists, has reference to a Ghana Rondo:
Now, by great contrast, in contemporary hip hop, there are many lyrical references to Rondo with different meanings. Many refer to the high-flying Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Rajan Rondo, and here, in Wu-Tang Clan’s later track, Laced Cheeba from Legendary Weapons in 201 there is a put-down line, intimating that the other’s attempts to rap are like trying to play Rajon Rondo.
You rap poorly, that's why your cassette's corny
Your money too short for long convo'
You in the game hurting, trying to play Rajon Rondo
Another common reference – Grand theft Rondo – pertains to the video game Grand Theft Auto, but also that Rajan Rondo can steal the ball from others on the court.
By contrast, another slang angle is Rondo in derogatory terms to the something, or somebody that is 'retarded' or inferior, Rondo in this context is short for the tiny commuter car, the KIA Rondo.
There are also many more recent references in hip hop lyrics to the braggadocio, cash-flashing gold-teeth wearing hip hop star Quando Rondo, aka Tyquian Terrel Bowman, who had a huge 2018 hit with I Remember, featuring Lil' Baby.
Rondo is a popular term in hip hop, probably also because it rolls off the tongue and is easy to rhyme, with such as in Tyga's lifestyle brag, Rack City:
I'm a muthafuckin' star (star)
Look at the paint on the car (car)
Too much rim make the ride too hard
Tell that bitch hop out, walk the boulevard
I need my money pronto
Get it in the morning like Alonzo Rondo
So the rondo and its related terms reaches far and wide. The rondò is also a two-part operatic vocal form, Rondo is the name of Moscow and Lithuanian rock bands, a 2010 novel by John Maher, and an acclaimed 1966 Yugoslavian film, directed by Zvonimir Berković, in which Mozart’s Rondo, as mentioned above, features heavily in the soundtrack, the plot centring around the chessboard, in which the moves reflect the love triangle that develops between the two players and the woman they both love.
But that's quite enough of the rondo, rondeau, rondel and round from this side. Care to come around and add some more? Please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
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