Ritornello facts for kids
Ritornello is an Italian word. It means "little return." In music, a ritornello is a part that comes back again and again.
At first, "ritornello" was just an instruction. It told musicians to repeat a section of music. By the 1600s, the word described a specific part. This part was played by instruments in a song with a singer. These instrumental parts could be at the start, middle, or end of a piece.
In plays with music, like operas, ritornellos were important. They gave people a chance to dance. They also helped change the scene on stage. During the Baroque period, a popular song style was the da capo aria. This type of song had two main parts, called A and B. Composers added instrumental ritornellos (R) to these songs. This created a pattern like R–A–R–B–R–A–R.
Ritornello in Concertos
In the early 1700s, composers started using ritornellos in concertos. A concerto is a piece for a solo instrument and an orchestra. Here, the solo instrument took the place of the singer. This allowed composers to create new music during the solo parts. They could also change the key of the music. These new solo sections would appear between repeated parts played by the full orchestra.
Guiseppe Torelli began using this form. Then, Antonio Vivaldi developed it even further. Vivaldi's way of using the ritornello form had some special features:
- The full orchestra plays the ritornello. Then, a solo instrument or instruments play. These parts take turns.
- The very first ritornello has several small sections. These sections are usually short, about two to four bars long. They can be repeated or changed slightly. These small parts can be used separately or combined in new ways.
- When the ritornello comes back later, it might be shorter. It might only use one or some of its small sections. Sometimes, these parts are changed a bit.
- The ritornellos help guide the music's key changes. They set up the new key when the music moves to a different one. The first and last ritornellos are in the main key, called the tonic. One ritornello (usually the first to change) is in the dominant key. Other ritornellos might be in other related keys.
Later composers, like Bach and Telemann, used Vivaldi's ritornello form in their own music.
See also
In Spanish: Ritornello para niños
