Ballades e virelais: struttura, terminologia e trattatistica antica

This article surveys the unstable terminology used to describe the medieval French fixed forms ballade and virelai, contrasting it with the relative stability of the Italian ballata and madrigale. Drawing on twentieth-century scholarship and on medieval treatises (Eustache Deschamps’s Art de dictier and Jacques Legrand’s Archiloge Sophie) it clarifies stanzaic architecture and the link between metrics and musical barform. On this basis, it motivates the ANS repertory’s choices, privileging a coherent French lexicon sanctioned by the sources. The resulting scheme resolves ambiguities, facilitates comparative analysis, and aligns the description with documented musical practice.