English

Etymology

French from Old French albade from Latin albus "white"

Noun

1. a song or poem greeting or evoking the dawn
2. a morning love song; a song of lovers parting in the morning
3. morning music

Related terms

nocturne

An aubade is a poem or song of or about lovers separating at dawn.

Aubade has also been defined as "a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or evoking daybreak."

The form has some dramatic elements, since the poem is often a dialogue between the lovers, one saying that dawn is near and they must part, and the other answering no. There is often a refrain, in which the watchman, or occasionally the jealous husband, warns the lovers of the approaching dawn. Aubades were in the repertory of troubadours in Europe in the Middle Ages. An early English example is in Book III of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. The love poetry of the 16th century dealt mostly with unsatisfied love, so the aubade was not a major genre in Elizabethan lyric. However, there is an aubade embedded in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, starting with the famous lines:

Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear

The aubade gained in popularity again with the advent of the metaphysical fashion; John Donne's poem "The Sunne Rising" is one of the finest examples of the aubade in English. Aubades were written from time to time in the 18th and 19th century, although none of them quite up to metaphysical standards.

There have been several notable aubades in the 20th century, such as Eagle Eye Cherry's popular song "Save Tonight", as well as a major poem titled "Aubade" by Philip Larkin in which the lover can be seen as either life or death. The French composer Francois Poulenc also wrote (in concerto form) a piece entitled Aubade which premiered in 1929. Maurice Ravel also included an aubade (Alborado del Gracioso) in his 1906 piano suite Miroirs. Mike Patton has a song entitled Aubade with the band Kaada.

See also

• Alba
• Tagelied
• Lyric poetry
• Serenade

External links

• How to Write an Aubade
• 'Aubade' - a poem by Philip Larkin