Lai 791734 224512606 2008-07-09T04:58:32Z Srnec 494861 /* Composers of lais */ the lai is not an Occitan form {{otheruses}} {{Redirect|Leich|the telephone company|Leich Electric}} A '''lai''' was a song form composed in northern [[Europe]], mainly [[France]] and [[Germany]], from the [[13th century|13th]] to the late [[14th century]]. 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]]). 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. Other terms for the lai, or for forms which were very similar to the lai, include ''[[descort]]'' ([[Provençal]]), ''Leich'' (German), and ''Lay'' (English). ==Composers of lais== * [[Adam de Givenchi]] * [[Charles d'Anjou]] * [[Charles, Duke of Orleans]] * [[Gautier de Coinci]] * [[Gautier de Dargies]] * [[Guillaume de Machaut]] * [[Guillaume li Vinier]] * [[Marie de France]] * [[Philippe de Vitry]] (uncertain; works attributed to him may be anonymous) * [[Tannhäuser]] * [[Thomas Herier]] ==See also== *[[Virelai]] *[[Breton lai]] *''[[The Lais of Marie de France]]'' [[Category:Lais| ]] [[Category:Musical forms]] [[Category:Medieval music]] [[Category:French poetry]] [[ca:Lai]] [[de:Leich]] [[es:Lay]] [[eo:Lajo (poezio)]] [[fr:Lai (poésie)]] [[it:Lai (poesia)]] [[ja:レー (詩形)]] [[pl:Lai]] [[ru:Лэ]]