Category:Canzonas

The list below includes all pages in the category "Canzonas". This includes 16th- and 17th-century instrumental works with the title 'Canzon'. A simple guide is that canzonas are strictly instrumental works whose height of popularity was from around 1584 (the first publication of Florentio Maschera's Libro Primo de canzoni, though a few single works appear in anthologies before then) until the mid 17th century. The instrumental term canzona changed genders from the masculine canzon, and many are given simple feminine-gendered titles, such as "La Bevilacqua" (Canale), "La Capriola" (Maschera), "La Spiritata" (Gabrieli), etc. Many start with a simple dactylic rhythm characteristic of the earlier French vocal chansons (a semibreve followed by two minims), though the term was fluid in the period, and many pieces now called ricercars were published in books of canzonas. A frequent term used from the earliest publications was "canzoni per sonare" or "canzoni da sonare" ("songs to be played"). Another term occasionally used (for instance, by Banchieri) is "canzon alla francesce" ("French-type song"). Eventually the form morphed into the "canzona sonata" (a played song), followed by the mid-baroque "sonata" (something simply "played"). Do not confuse with Canzoni; see also Canzonets, Canzonettas.