SACRED SONG (CANZONE SACRA). - In vocal music, it meant a composition, analogous to the motet, in a strictly imitative style, whose theme was a melody very often drawn from the Gregorian heritage (12th-13th century) or from popular tradition. It did not have a well-determined form distinct from the motet even in the 16th and 17th centuries (Sacrae cantiones quae vulgo moctcta appellantur). In this period, however, the canzoni of the Franco-Flemish school, the Italian profane or spiritual canzonette and the German lieder were more clearly defined.
In instrumental music the term canzone indicates, from the 16th century onward, a composition of definite character, analogous to the ricercare, but generally more clearly fugal, with an incisive theme (often with repeated notes in the 1st measure) and a lively movement; frequent is the return of the initial theme in the conclusion and the alternation of odd rhythms with even rhythms. The name canzone appears for the first time in 1523, in Venice, for the works of G. Cavazzoni known as di Bologna, and then, in 1530, in Paris.
It is customary to define as "da chiesa" or "francese" the c. divided into several parts and generally more complex than the c. "da camera", which couples the severity of the contrapuntal procedure with an airy clarity and sprightliness of theme and rhythmic movement. The c. s. were at 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 of Fugen oder (wie es die Italiener nennen) Canzoni alla francese (a) 4 (voci), there appear compositions, certainly already close to our fugue, by no fewer than 12 Italians (Malvezzi, Maschera, Gabrieli, Mortaro, Banchieri, Soriano, Brignoli, Vecchi and another uncertain one). Another important collection is the Venetian one (1608), which goes under the title of "Canzoni per sonar con ogni sorte di stromenti a 4, 5 e 8 con il suo Basso generale per l'organo" (in a transcription for voices by Raverii), in which there appear, besides some of those already mentioned, Merulo, Guami, Antepnati, Lappi, Frescobaldi, Grillo, Chilese, Bartolini, Massini. Other 16th-17th-century composers were Bernardi, Sperindio, Froberger, Kerler, Pasquini, Zipoli, della Ciaja.
Anna Maria Gentili