Italian dance-song, and poetic and musical form used from the second half of the thirteenth century untill the fifteenth century and longer. A form of the ballata consists of the scheme A ( ripresa, or the choral refrain), BB (two symmetrical piedi volta), followed by a return of the ripresa as volta of the A ( ripresa). Hence, the structure is similar to that of the French virelai. The texts are often love songs. The music was commonly based on oral tradition. A leading composer of ballata was Landini, with 141 surviving ballate. Other important composers of polyphonic ballate are Gherardello da Firenze, Lorenzo da Firenze, and Jacopo da Bologna. [SJK, GJC] Glossary 1300-1400

A type of fourteenth-century italian secular song, similar to the French virelai.

a form of italian 14th century poettry and music

a fourteenth-century Italian secular genre which follows the form A b b a A; related to the French virelai.

The ballata (plural: ballate) is an Italian poetic and musical form, which was in use from the late 13th to the 15th century. It has the musical structure AbbaA, with the first and last stanzas having the same texts. It is thus most similar to the French musical 'forme fixe' virelai (and not the ballade as the name might otherwise suggest).