Ballade

What it means

Ballade denotes first of all a narrative poem and its setting: a song that tells a story, usually with dramatic heightening. Because the text moves forward, ballades are frequently through-composed or in varied strophic form rather than simply strophic. Alongside this stands the instrumental ballade, above all for piano, which has no text but takes on the narrative tone. In the Middle Ages the term also denotes a fixed French song form with a strophic structure of its own.

Musical use

The ballade as a song belongs to the core of the art song in the nineteenth century; its peculiarity lies in the fact that the piano part helps to shape the scene — footsteps, storm, the voices of different characters become audible. The singer takes on several roles at once, which places particular demands on characterisation. The instrumental ballade is usually large in scale, free in form, with strong contrasts and an intensified close. In popular music the word is used for slow, calm pieces — a third meaning that no longer has anything to do with narration.

In the Middle Ages the ballade was a French song form with a refrain, one of the formes fixes alongside the rondeau and virelai. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it became narrative poetry, which composers such as Loewe and Schubert set to music. Chopin transferred the designation to large, narratively conceived piano pieces.

Performance practice

With a ballade as a song, first work out the characters and the course of the story and distinguish the parts of speech audibly in colour and tone. Plan the arc of tension across the whole piece, so that the climax does not come too early. Accompaniment and voice are of equal standing; rehearse the scenes together, not separately. With instrumental ballades it helps to mark the formal sections and to shape the transitions deliberately. Keep the tempo flexible but fundamentally stable, so that the narrative does not fall apart.

Watch also the distribution of forces: ballades are frequently long and intensify toward the close, which is why too strong a beginning costs the effect. Mark in the notation the points at which the narrative takes a turn, and shape them clearly. With ballades as songs it is worth reciting the text once as a poem, to check the speaking tempo and the articulation.