View source for Lai (poetic form)

{{Short description|Type of lyrical, narrative poem}}
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A '''''lai''''' (or ''lay lyrique'', "lyric lay", to distinguish it from a ''[[lai breton]]'') is a lyrical, narrative poem written in [[octosyllabic]] couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance. ''Lais'' were mainly composed in  [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Holy Roman Empire|Germany]], during the 13th and 14th centuries. The English term 
''[[:wikt:lay#Noun|lay]]'' is a 13th-century loan from Old French ''lai''. The origin of the French term itself is unclear; perhaps it is itself a loan from German ''[[lác|Leich]]'' (reflected in archaic or dialectal English ''[[:wikt:lake#Etymology 2|lake]]'', "sport, play" and in modern Swedish (att leka = to play). The terms ''note'', ''nota'' and ''notula'' (as used by [[Johannes de Grocheio]]) appear to have been synonyms for ''lai''.

The poetic form of the ''lai'' usually has several [[stanza]]s, none of which have the same form. As a result, the accompanying music consists of sections which do not repeat.  This distinguishes the lai from other common types of musically important verse of the period (for example, the [[rondeau (poetry)|rondeau]] and the [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]]). Towards the end of its development in the 14th century, some lais repeat stanzas, but usually only in the longer examples. There is one very late example of a lai, written to mourn the defeat of the French at the [[Battle of Agincourt]] (1415), (''Lay de la guerre'', by [[Pierre de Nesson]]) but no music for it survives.

There are four lais in the ''[[Roman de Fauvel]]'', all of them anonymous. The ''lai'' reached its highest level of development as a musical and poetic form in the work of [[Guillaume de Machaut]]; 19 separate lais by this 14th-century [[ars nova]] composer survive, and they are among his most sophisticated and highly developed secular compositions.

==Composers of lais==
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'''French composers'''
* [[Adam de Givenchi]]
* [[Charles I of Anjou|Charles d'Anjou]]
* [[Charles, Duke of Orléans]]
* [[Gautier de Coincy]]
* [[Gautier de Dargies]]
* [[Guillaume de Machaut]]
* [[Guillaume li Vinier]]
* [[Marie de France]]
* [[Philip the Chancellor]]
* [[Philippe de Vitry]] (uncertain; works attributed to him may be anonymous)
* [[Thomas Herier]]
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'''German composers'''<ref>{{citation |title=''Leich'' |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to German Literature |edition=3rd |editor1=Henry Garland |editor2=Mary Garland |publisher=Oxford University Press |orig-year=1997 |year=2005 |url=http://oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198158967.001.0001/acref-9780198158967-e-3160 |access-date=30 December 2020}}.</ref>
*[[Walther von der Vogelweide]]
*[[Der Tannhäuser]] (wrote 6 ''Leiche'')
*[[Rudolf von Rotenburg]] (5)
*[[Ulrich von Winterstetten]] (5)
*[[Konrad von Würzburg]] (>1)
*[[Der von Gliers]] (>1)
*[[Johannes Hadlaub]] (>1)
*[[Heinrich Frauenlob]] (>1)
*[[Ulrich von Gutenburg]] (1)
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==See also==
*[[Breton lai]]
*{{slink|Roundelay|Etymology}}
*[[Virelai]]

== References ==
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*David Fallows. "Lai." ''Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online''. Oxford University Press.
*The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume 2: The Medieval Period. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press. 2009. {{ISBN|978-1-55111-965-6}}
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[[Category:Lais (poetic form)| ]]
[[Category:Medieval music genres]]
[[Category:French poetry]]
[[Category:Song forms]]