Ballad
A
ballad is a story in a
song, usually a
narrative song or
poem. Any form of story may be told as a ballad, ranging from accounts of historical events to fairy tales in verse form. It is usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines ('ballad meter') and simple repeating
rhymes, and often with a refrain.
If it is based on political or religious themes, a ballad may then be a version of a
hymn. Ballads should not be confused with the
ballade, a 14th and 15th century French verse form.
1) Normally a short narrative arranged into four line stanzas with a memorable
meter.
2) Typical ballad meter is a first and third line with four stresses (
iambic tetrameter) and then a second and fourth line with three stresses(
iambic trimeter).
3) The
rhyme scheme is typically abab or abcb.
4) Often uses
colloquialisms to enhance the story telling (and sometimes to fudge the rhyme scheme).
Broadsheet ballads (also known as
broadside ballads) were cheaply printed and hawked in English streets from the sixteenth century. They were often topical, humorous, and even subversive; the legends of
Robin Hood and the pranks of
Puck were disseminated through broadsheet ballads.
New ballads were written about current events like fires, the birth of monstrous animals, and so forth, giving particulars of names and places. Satirical ballads and
Royalist ballads contributed to 17th century political discourse. In a sense, these ballads were antecedents of the modern
newspaper.
Thomas Percy,
Robert Harley,
Francis James Child, Sir
Walter Scott and
James Hogg were early collectors and publishers of ballads from the oral tradition, broadsheets and previous anthologies. Percy's publication of
Reliques of Ancient Poetry and Harley's collections, such as
The Bagford Ballads, were of great import in beginning the study of ballads. Some of the collectors also wrote new ballads. Many ballads are referenced in scholarly works by their number in Child's compilation (see the
Child Ballads). The American poet
Carl Sandburg was influenced by ballads, and published a collection he had assembled as
The American Songbag (1927).
The form of a ballad was much used in nineteenth century poetry.
Wordsworth and
Coleridge signalled the populist intent of their first major work,
Lyrical Ballads. The vogue continued through such Victorian poets as
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who used the form for early work ("The Blessed Damozel") and toward the end of his career (1881
Ballads and Sonnets). Ballads have also been imitated in modern poetry— most notably by the Canadian ballads of
Robert W. Service, in
Kipling's "Road to Mandalay," and in "
Casey at the Bat." "The Ballad of the Bread-man" is
Charles Causley's re-telling of the story of the birth of
Jesus. Many modern written musical ballads are in the repertory of American
folk music.
Murder ballad
A specific subgenre of the broadsheet ballad is the
murder ballad. Usually told from the point of view of the killer, murder ballads typically recount the details of the crime — who the victim is, why the murderer decides to kill him or her, how he or she is lured to the murder site and the act itself — followed by the escape and/or capture of the murderer. Often the ballad ends with the murderer in jail or on their way to the gallows, occasionally with a plea for the listener to learn from the evils committed by the speaker.
Border ballads are a subgenre of folk ballads collected in the area along the
Anglo-
Scottish border, especially those concerned with
border reivers and
outlaws, or with historical events in the
Borders.
Notable historical ballads include "
The Battle of Otterburn" and"The Hunting of Cheviot" or "
The Ballad of Chevy Chase".
Outlaw ballads include "
Johnnie Armstrong", "
Kinmont Willie", and "
Jock o' the Side".
Other types of ballads (including fairy ballads like "
Thomas the Rhymer") are often included in the category of border ballads.
Literary ballads are those composed and written formally. The form, with its connotations of simple folkloric authenticity, became popular with the rise of
Romanticism in the later 18th century. Literary ballads may then be set to music, as
Schubert's Der Erlkönig, set to a literary ballad by
Goethe (see also
Der Zauberlehrling). In
Romantic opera a ballad set into the musical texture may emphasize or play against the theatrical moment. Atmospheric ballads in operas were initiated in
Weber's Der Freischütz and include Senta's ballad in
Wagner's Fliegender Holländer, or the 'old song' 'Salce'
Desdemona sings in
Verdi's Otello. Compare the stanza-like structure and narrative atmosphere of the musical
Ballades for solo piano of
Chopin or
Brahms.
A particularly English form, the ballad opera, has as its most famous example
John Gay's
The Beggar's Opera, which inspired the 20th-century cabaret operas of
Bertolt Brecht and
Kurt Weill (
q.v.). Ballad strophs usually alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter, though this is not always the case.
See also
Power ballad. Not really a ballad at all but a love song performed using rock instruments.
Ballad- A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legendEpic- a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation. Ode- An Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing. Sonnet- A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme.
*Traditional
**
Akilattirattu Ammanai**
Ballad of Jesse James**
Ballad of Chevy Chase**
Barbara Allen**
The Battle of New Orleans**
The Battle of Harlaw**
The Battle of Otterburn**
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair**
The Cruel Brother**
Golden Vanity**
The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry**
The Greensleeves**
Henry Martin**
John Barleycorn**
Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier**
Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight**
Lochinbar**
Lord Randall**
Lovely Joan**
Lyke-Wake Dirge**
Mary Hamilton**
Mary Tamlin**
The Mines of Avondale**"
Molly and Tenbrooks" (aka "The Racehorse Song")
**
Oh Shenandoah**Many ballads of
Robin Hood**
The Scarborough Fair**
Sir Patrick Spens**
Tam Lin**
The Three Ravens**
Thomas the Rhymer**
The Gypsie Laddie**
Verner Raven - oldest Scandinavian ballad with music
*Modern
**
American Pie**
Ballad of the Alamo**
The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins**
Ballad of Davy Crockett**
The Ballad Of Easy Rider**
The Ballad Of Gerda And Tore**
The Ballad of John and Yoko**
Ballad of the Green Berets**
The Devil Went Down to Georgia**
Candle in the Wind**
Candle in the Wind 1997**
Faithfully**
Frankie and Johnny**
Frankie Silver**
Going to California**
House of the Rising Sun**
Hotel California**
Hurricane**I Dreamed I Saw
Joe Hill Last Night
**
In The Ghetto**
Me And Bobby McGee**
Morning Bell**
Where Were You? (When The World Stopped Turning)**
Story of Bo Diddley**
Taxi Driver**
Tears in Heaven**
Tom Dooley**
Tribute**
Turn The Page**
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald*
The Bodleian Library Ballad Collection: view facsimiles of printed ballads*
The Traditional Ballad Index*
Murder Ballads*
English and some German ballads*
Folk Music, Child Ballads, Popular Songs In American History, Sea Shanties etc.*
Child ballads*
Francis James Child*
Graves, Alfred Perceval
