Rounds are composed songs for multiple singers who all sing the same words and melody. This single melody line creates its own harmony when sung at evenly spaced intervals.
Two, three, or four singers can perform rounds. Aside from that, a variety of variations are possible. The song’s ending could come from each voice stopping in turn, demonstrating the effects of addition at the start and subtraction at the end. Alternatively, all of the voices can come to a halt at the same chord. In addition, some rounds have instrumental or vocal accompaniment provided performers other than those who take the round’s single melody.
Rounds have been around since the Middle Ages in England. “Summer is icumen in,” a mid-thirteenth-century round, is still sung today. The term “round” is thought to have originated in the early 1500s. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the term “catch” was used to refer to a comic round.
Rounds are frequently used in music lessons. Because everyone sings the same part, they are simple to learn but still give participants the feeling of singing in harmony. Rounds are great for developing independence and the ability to stick to one’s part, and they are also appealing to younger students because they don’t need to see the music.
Rounds that are popular include:
• “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “Music Alone Shall Live,” and “Shalom Chaverim” for two voices;
• “Chairs to Mend,” “By the Waters of Babylon,” and “Dona Nobis Pacem,” all in three voices; and
• the 4-voice rounds “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” and “Frère Jacques,” known in English as “Are You Sleeping?”
Ludwig van Beethoven composed several dozen rounds, as well as including round structure in larger works such as his opera Fidelio and his Sixth Symphony. In his Symphony No. 1, Gustav Mahler also used a round in a symphony. A round was included in Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. QuillBot will rewrite the text you’ve written. Begin typing or pasting something into this box, then pressing the enter key.