Ballata

The ballata (plural: ballate) is an Italian poetic and musical form in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. The term comes from the verb ballare, to dance, and the form certainly began as

Lauda and Ballata#

The vernacular sacred genre called lauda were often written in ballata form both before and after the height of the Trecento polyphonic ballata. It is through newly composed laude and laude-contrafacta that the ballata has its chronologically widest influence.

Editions#

Modern editions of the majority of the surviving ballata repertory were prepared by Nino Pirrotta in The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy (esp. volume 8) and in Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century vol. 4 (Leo Schrade, ed., the music of Francesco Landini), vol. 24 (Margaret Bent and Anne Hallmark, ed., the music of Johannes Ciconia), and throughout vols. 6-11 (W. Thomas Marrocco, ed.).

Genre family: Medieval music genres