Canzona (also canzone) is a poetic form, and a type of musical composition.
Poetry
In poetry, a canzona is a short lyric poem that developed in Provence, France, and became popular in Italy during the Middle Ages. The subject of canzoni (Italian: "songs") was usually love, nature, or feminine beauty. In form, a canzone was composed of stanzas of equal length and closed with an envoi, a shorter stanza. The number of lines in the stanzas varied from 7 to 20. The most famous writers of canzoni were the 14th_century writers Dante and Petrarch.
Music
In music, a canzona was a 16th-century multipart vocal setting of a literary canzone and a 16th_ and 17th-century instrumental composition. At first based on Franco-Flemish polyphonic songs (chansons), later independently composed, the instrumental canzona, such as the brass canzonas of Giovanni Gabrieli influenced the fugue and was the direct ancestor of the sonata.
Whilst the core of the ensemble consists of two violins and continuo, a large range of instruments is used and Canzona regularly assumes orchestral proportions, particularly in its collaborations with choirs.
Canzona is the ‘Ensemble in Residence’ at Magdalen College Oxford and is undertaking a programme of workshops, concerts and chapel services there.
Canzona’s first recording was released on the EtCetera label; Motets by André Campra [1660-1744] for one, two and three voices with Philippa Hyde, Rodrigo del Pozo and Peter Harvey.
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