Round (music)

A round in music is a song which can be sung by two or more groups of people.   One group starts off and the next group start to sing the same song a bit later.  It should sound nice together.  When a group gets to the end of the song they start again.  They can go round and round, singing it several times.

Usually rounds are in 2, 3 or 4 parts (meaning that they are for 2, 3 or 4 groups of people).  When a group of people sing or  play a round they usually sing it an agreed number of times.  This means that the group which starts last also finishes last.

Frère Jacques is a famous French round.  London's Burning is an English round.  Both those rounds can be sung in 4 parts.

The oldest round that we know is Sumer is icumen in.  This is a very famous piece of music because it is the oldest piece of music we know that was written down.  It was written around 1250 by a monk.  It can be sung in 4 parts with 2 bass drones (held notes).

Writing music by making one part imitate another is called canonic writing.  Rounds are a kind of canon.

Related pages
Canon (music)

Category:Musical forms