Music glossary

This musical glossary is not an exhaustive list, it only tries to explain some recurrent words or expressions occurring in traditionnal songs from the County of Nice.

ambitus: range between the lowest note and the highest note of a tune.

aubade: dawn serenade, given beneath the windows or in front of the door of somebody.
See also chamada or ciamada, Ai ! quouro tournara lou tèms, bregado ? Lu Capitani de quartié, Innou Seguran, Nautre sian d’enfant de cor, Nouvè, Nouvé de Jan-Antounin, O Magali, Segnour e pastressa.

complainte: lament.

degré: each one of the different notes of a given scale, starting with the keynote. Conjunct degrees: next notes.

diane (from Latin dies, day, via Spanish diana): drum roll or bugle or fife call which was announcing the reveille.
See also The instruments, Sacred & religious music.

pastourelle: lyric style in which a young shepherdess enters into dialogue with a knight, seeking to seduce her.
See also Bonjour Nanon, Eh ! Bonjour, bergère !, La Paisana, La Pastressa et lou Granadié, Rouseta la pastressa.

rondeau or rondo: vocal or instrumental form, characterized by the alternation of verses and a chorus (i.e. a structure of the type ABA: theme A = refrain, theme B = verse, theme A = refrain).

sérénade: concert given in the evening beneath the windows or in front of the door of somebody.
See also Ai ! quouro tournara lou tèms, bregado ?

serventes or sirventes: manifesto, anti-establishment or protest song, tribute.
See also Segnour e pastressa.

timbre or “hum”: wellknown tune which could receive different and exchangeable lyrics.

vaudeville: the “song in vaudeville” consists in making sing on a known air (the “fredon” or “timbre”) new words which adapt to it. This process makes it possible to write new songs without worrying about the music, thus promoting their distribution and their memorization.
The word is traditionally attached to Vau-de-Vire, name of a region of Calvados, then altered to “city vault” (attested from 1507) or “city voice”. Vaudeville originally designated a popular satirical song, an offensive weapon against ridicule, or dealing with the simple pleasures of life: love, wine... At the end of the XVII^e siècle, vaudeville became a theatrical comedy, adorned with songs and ballets; then, around 1825, a light comedy rich in twists and turns. In the XVIII^e siècle, vaudeville was the great resource of the theaters of the Fair, ancestors of the Opéra-Comique, playing “vaudeville comedies”.
See also Allons, bergers, partons tous, Nous conserverons le roi, Nouvé grassenc, Quand la mer Rouge apparut, Le saint, craignant de pécher.

villanelle: popular nature polyphonic composition, native to Naples, in fashion during 15th and 16th centuries.
See also Segnour e pastressa.

Lexical items are partly taken from:
     • Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, sous la direction d’Alain Rey, Paris, Dictionnaires Le Robert, 1993, ISBN 2-85036-187-9;
     • Dumersan (Théophile Marion), Chansons nationales et populaires de France, Paris, Garnier frères, 1866;
     • Moureau (François), Wahl (Élisabeth), Chants de la Révolution française.

© 2001-2025 Jean-Gabriel Maurandi.