Ritornello

What it means

A ritornello is a recurring section that organizes and holds together a form. The Italian word means roughly “little return.” The term is used in several contexts: for instrumental interludes in vocal music, for refrains in song forms, and above all for the recurring orchestral part in the Baroque concerto.

Musical use

In the Baroque concerto, the ritornello is the load-bearing formal principle. The full ensemble presents a characteristic section in the main key; after this, solo episodes, in which the soloist or soloists come forward with virtuoso material, alternate with returns of the ritornello. These returns usually stand in different keys and are often shortened; only at the end does the ritornello return in the main key and often in full. This creates an alternation of tutti and solo, of the familiar and the new, of firmness and movement.

In arias and other vocal movements, the ritornello designates the instrumental sections that introduce, interrupt, and conclude the singing; they usually take up the material of the singing voice.

Ritornello form is related to the later rondo, in which a refrain recurs several times, but differs in that the ritornello wanders through various keys and appears shortened or altered in its returns, while the rondo refrain usually returns in the main key.

The ritornello is also to be distinguished from the basso ostinato, which is constantly repeated instead of alternating with other sections.

In the Baroque instrumental concerto, the ritornello organizes the movement: the orchestra plays it at the beginning, solo episodes stand in between, and it returns in various keys before concluding the movement in the main key. In opera and cantata, ritornello designates an instrumental prelude, interlude, or postlude to an aria.

Performance practice

Shape the ritornello recognizably at every return, but not identically — it appears in new keys and contexts. Watch the alternation between tutti and solo: the ensemble holds back in the solo episodes and comes forward fully again in the ritornello. And mark the returns in the music; they are the organizing points of the movement.