[ad. It. canzonetta (= Pr. cansoneta, Fr. chansonnette), dim. of canzone.] A little or short song; a vocal solo in more than one movement; now usually, a short song of a light and airy character.
1593. T. Morley (title), Canzonets. Or Little Short Songs to three Voyces. Ibid. (1597), Introd. Mus., 180. Canzonets that is little shorte songs … which is in composition of the musick a counterfet of the Madrigal.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 291. The lakes reechoing their continual canzonets and the like.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Music, xii. 199. The common Song or Canzonette.
1792. S. Rogers, Ital. Song, 118. The canzonet and roundelay Sung in the silent greenwood shade.
1847. Tennyson, P’cess, IV. 117. A rogue of canzonets and serenades.
1879. W. H. Cummings, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 306/2. Haydn has left us some admirable canzonets, grave and gay; for example, ‘She never told her love.’
