Lai
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/* Composers of lais */ the lai is not an Occitan form
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{{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]]