Note 321 — Chapter IV

The Ballata or Canzone a Ballo, as its name implies, was a poem intended to be sung during the dance. A musician played the lute while young women executed the movements of the Carola (so beautifully depicted by Benozzo Gozzoli in his Pisan frescoes), alone or in the company of young men, singing the words of the song. The Ballata consisted of lyric stanzas with a recurrent couplet. It is difficult to distinguish the Ballate from the Canzonette d'Amore.