Sacred Song
In vocal music, the term "canzone sacra" denoted a composition, analogous to the motet, in a strictly imitative style, whose theme was very often drawn from the Gregorian repertoire (12th–13th centuries) or from popular tradition. Even in the 16th and 17th centuries it did not acquire a well-defined and distinct form from the motet (Sacrae cantiones quae vulgo motecta appellantur). In this period, however, the songs of the Franco-Flemish school, the Italian secular or spiritual canzonettas, and the German lieder were more clearly defined.
In instrumental music, the term canzone has denoted, since the 16th century, a composition of a defined character, analogous to the ricercare but generally more distinctly fugal, with an incisive theme (often with repeated notes in the first bar) and a lively character; the return of the initial theme at the close and the alternation of odd and even rhythms are frequent. The name canzone appears for the first time in 1523, in Venice, in the works of G. Cavazzoni detto di Bologna, and then in 1530 in Paris.
The canzone is usually defined as "da chiesa" or "francese" when it is divided into several parts and, generally, more complex than the "da camera" canzone, which combines the severity of contrapuntal procedure with an airy clarity and ease of theme and rhythm. The "da chiesa" canzoni were first written for organ, then for various instruments, with or without voices (Banchieri: Ecclesiastiche sinfonie dette Canzoni in aria francese a 4 voci per sonare et cantare, 1607). In the Tabulaturbuch (1607) of B. Schmid junior, under the title Pagen oder (wie es die Italiener nennen) Canzoni alla francese (a) 4 (vocis), there are compositions, certainly already close to our fugue, by twelve Italians (Malvezzi, Maschera, Gabrieli, Mortaro, Banchieri, Soriano, Brignoli, Vecchi and another uncertain). Another important collection is the Venetian one (1608), which goes under the title "Canzoni per sonar con ogni sorte di strumenti a 4, e 8 con il suo Basso generale per l'organo" (in a vocal transcription by Ravero), which includes, besides some of those already mentioned, Merulo, Guami, Antegnati, Lappi, Frescobaldi, Grillo, Chiesa, Bartolini, Massimi. Other 16th–17th-century composers were Bernardi, Sperindio, Froberger, Kerler, Pasquini, Zipoli, della Ciaja. Anna Maria Gentili