Canzo'né

Canzo'né is the name of one of the most important forms of Italian lyric poetry. It seems to have grown out of the canzo of the troubadours, which was in their hands, however, exclusively reserved for themes of love. The Italian canzone consists of a series of stanzas, of various metrical arrangements, and restricted to no set themes. In the Petrarchian canzone the stanzas exactly correspond in the number and measure of the lines, as also in the sequence of the rhymes. It often concludes with a short stanza, known as the envoi. Petrarch is the great master of the canzone in the earlier, and Leopardi in the later period of Italian literature. In music, canzone and canzonet are songs in two or more parts. The French chanson is simply a song.