canti carnascialeschi

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canti carnascialeschi (It.). Carnival songs (singular is canto carnascialesco). Processional madrigals of an early simple variety, with several stanzas to the same mus., something like the Eng. Ayre but with the tune in the ten. Part of social life of Florence in the 15th and 16th cents., being written for the carnival festivities of the Medici court.