romance
Sign in to savemusical form of brief, simple melody
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Russian Guitar Player, by Vasily Tropinin (1823) The term romance (Spanish: romance/romanza, Italian: romanza, German: Romanze, French: romance, Russian: романс, Portuguese: romance, Romanian: romanţă) has a centuries-long history. Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that "generally it implies a specially personal or tender quality".
Instrumental music bearing the title "Romance"
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “romance” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.