a. Used as a refrain. b. Music. A sort of madrigal or ‘ballet’ in vogue in the 16th and 17th c.
a. 1595. Morley, First Book of Balletts, I.
| Sit we heere our loues recounting | |
| Fa la la la. |
1665. Earl of Dorset, Poems (1721), 58.
| To all you Ladies now at Land … | |
| With a Fa, la, la, la, la. |
a. 1800. Cowper, Poems, To Celia, i.
| No serenade to break her rest, | |
| Nor songs her slumbers to molest, | |
| With my fa, la, la. |
attrib. 1838. J. Struthers, Poetic Tales, 78. An’ fifths an’ thirds, And ither crankums, set and shown, ’Mang fa la words?
b. 1597. T. Morley, Introd. Mus., 180. An other kind of Ballets, commonlie called falas.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. 59. Your Madrigals or Fa la’s of five and six Parts.
1867. Macfarren, Harmony, ii. 55. Ballets, or Fal-las, of the end of the sixteenth century.
