Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A popular song or melody sung by Venetian gondoliers.
  • noun A piece of music composed in imitation of such a song.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A popular song or melody sung by Venetian gondoliers.
  • noun A piece of music composed in imitation of such a song.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a boating song sung by Venetian gondoliers

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French barcarolle, from Italian barcaruola, from barca bark, barge.

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Examples

  • Marina Poplavskaya's Amelia sounded out of sorts in her wistful Act I aria, "Come in quest'ora", with the sound of the sea rippling its barcarolle in the woodwind.

    Simon Boccanegra; 63rd Aldeburgh festival 2010

  • Talk About Love 1997 a barcarolle, musically speaking

    It's too early for any color on the redbuds of Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Althouse 2009

  • "You have just been listening to the barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann on gramophone records," the announcer rasped.

    The War with the Newts 2006

  • But no sooner had Natasha finished her barcarolle than reality again presented itself.

    War and Peace 2003

  • Monsieur Leon sang a barcarolle, and Madame Bovary, senior, who was godmother, a romance of the time of the Empire; finally, M. Bovary, senior, insisted on having the child brought down, and began baptizing it with a glass of champagne that he poured over its head.

    Madame Bovary 2003

  • For these musicians recognized their kind: and, since that long-past evening of the _barcarolle_, had marked Ivan for a future, according to their lights.

    The Genius Margaret Horton Potter

  • His rendering of the now celebrated _barcarolle_, had given him an unquestioned place in the _salon_ of the Grand-Duchess, which henceforth he frequented regularly.

    The Genius Margaret Horton Potter

  • And Molly laughs lightly, and bursts into a barcarolle that utterly precludes the idea of any deep feeling; after which she gives them her own "Molly Bawn," and then, shutting down the piano, declares she is tired, and that evidently John doesn't appreciate her, and so she will sing no more.

    Molly Bawn Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

  • -- Ivan Gregoriev, Monsieur Rubinstein has brought us a new manuscript -- a barcarolle, you said, Anton?

    The Genius Margaret Horton Potter

  • "Your Highness, it was not my barcarolle you heard, but a clever bit of improvisation on my theme -- my own development having proved, no doubt, too much for Monsieur Gregoriev's technique."

    The Genius Margaret Horton Potter

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