Let's figure out what a ballad is and where this word came from. The word “ballad” came to us from the Italian language (“ballare” - “to dance”). This is what dance songs were called in the old days.
Ballads were written in poetic form, there were many couplets, and they were performed to the accompaniment of some instrument. Over time, when people stopped dancing to the ballad, it began to have a serious, epic meaning.
What is a ballad in literature
In the Middle Ages, ballads turned into songs with everyday themes, which told about the exploits of knights, raids of robbers, historical warriors or any other events relating to people's lives. The basis of all ballads is conflict. It could arise between parents and children, between a girl and a young man, on the basis of social inequality, the invasion of enemies.
The emotional impact of ballads in literature is based on the fact that the tragic conflict between life and death helps to understand and appreciate the meaning of existence.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the ballad practically ceased to exist as a literary genre, because during this period of time mythological plays or plays about heroes of ancient history were staged on the stages of classical theaters. All this was far from the people and their way of life, and the main content of the ballads was the people.
In the 19th century, the ballad appeared again in literary and musical art. It became a poetic genre and received a new sound in the works of Zhukovsky (his contemporaries nicknamed him the “balladeer”), as well as Pushkin and Lermontov, Goethe and Heine, Mitskevich.
What is a ballad in music
It is interesting that when the royal opera became curious due to its excessive seriousness and conventionality, composers J. Pepusch and J. Gay, for fun, created simple ballads instead of arias and complex compositions. They called their work “The Beggars' Opera” (1728), and it is also known as the “ballad opera”.
Like poets, composers also reached out to her. They used the lyrics and features of ballads in their works, such as:
- "The Forest King" by Schubert;
- “The Forgotten” by Mussorgsky;
- "Night View" by Glinka.
Composers tried to convey the same visual plot of ballads in music as in literature. For example, the fast jump rhythm in the ballad “The Forest King” by Schubert.
In the 20th century, Soviet composers also often wrote ballads for choirs and instruments.
For example, you probably know such works as:
- “On the Kulikovo Field”, and “The Ballad of a Soldier” by V. P. Solovyov-Sedoy;
- Ballad “Vityaz” by Yu. A. Shaporin;
- dramatic ballads of N.P. Rakov.
Nowadays, lyrical ballads are also used in modern music.
(French ballade, from Latin ballo, I dance), a folklore genre among the peoples of Europe, originally a round dance song with a refrain (among the Romance peoples) or a lyric epic song with a choral refrain (among the Germanic peoples).
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BALLAD
(French Ballade - dancing) - the name of several different poetic and musical genres: 1) in Provençal poetry - a song accompanied by dance; 2) in French and Italian poetry - a poetic form of three or four stanzas with a specific rhyme system; 3) an action-packed poetic story, often of legendary, heroic or historical content. The creators of the ballads were troubadours and trouvères, and the performers were minstrels and jugglers.
It originally arose among the Romance peoples of the Middle Ages as a lyrical choral song with an obligatory refrain. By the 13th century. as a mandatory genre, it was included in the poetry of troubadours and trouvères; it was a plotless lyric poem of three stanzas. It became especially widespread in the 18th–19th centuries. in the poetry of sentimentalism and romanticism (R. Burns, S. Coleridge, W. Blake, F. Schiller, G. Heine, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, etc.). The vocal ballad is also associated with romantic ideas in music and is represented in the works of F. Schubert, R. Schumann, J. Brahms, A. N. Verstovsky, A. E. Varlamov. Instrumental ballads were written by F. Liszt, E. Grieg and F. Chopin.
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This is a ballad lyric-epic folklore and literary genre.
- In French poetry, a poetic form of three stanzas with the same rhyme scheme and a refrain at the end;
- A song or instrumental piece with a dramatic plot.
The plot of the ballad, which often involves tragic events, is based on folklore: it is associated with traditions, folk beliefs, fairy tales and legends; The genre combines the characteristics of a story and a song, which determines the spread of musical ballads. During the period of sentimentalism and romanticism, the ballad is one of the main genres of poetry.
The emergence and development of the ballad
The ballad appeared in medieval France at the end of the 13th century., her term is first applied to Provençal poetry. Originally a ballad in the Middle Ages, it was a folk dance song popularized by troubadours and trouvères; later in the culture of Western Europe - a narrative song or poem of a social, historical, mythical or heroic nature with an element of fantasy.
The classical literary form of the ballad is determined towards the end of the French Middle Ages and is a lyric poem of three stanzas, each of which consists of eight 8-syllable or ten 10-syllable verses, with the same three or four rhymes in a certain sequence, repeated from stanza to stanza. Examples of the ballad genre in the 14th century. left by the French poet and composer, author of about two hundred ballads, Guillaume de Machaut.
Example of a ballad
In the 15th century The French poet Francois Villon significantly expanded the theme of ballads, often touching on historical, political and patriotic themes:
Prince, may the mighty Aeolus take away
The one who betrays his native land,
Dishonors the sanctity of friendly alliances,
And forever be cursed the one
Who will encroach on the homeland of the French!
(excerpt from “The Ballad of Curses on the Enemies of France”, translation by F. Mendelssohn)
In the sixteenth century. The French ballad is used less and less; in the 17th century, simple and witty ballads were written by the famous French fabulist La Fontaine, but the ballad genre finally returned to French poetry in the 17th-19th centuries. thanks to the romantic poets J. de Nerval, V. Hugo and others, it established itself as one of the main genres of poetry of romanticism and sentimentalism.
Ballad in Italy
The medieval ballad entered Italy and served as a lyric poem in the 13th–14th centuries. Unlike the original French ballad, the Italian ballad was not associated with a folk dance song; its form was somewhat modified, including a change in stanza and the elimination of the refrain. Such ballads take place in the works of D. Alighieri, F. Petrarch and others.
Ballad in England, Scotland
In the 18th century, recordings of ballads from the peoples of England and Scotland first appeared. The ballad emerged as a special lyrical genre of Anglo-Scottish poetry in the 14th–16th centuries. A whole cycle of folk ballads, more than forty works, developed around the kind and brave defender, the folk hero Robin Hood, who embodied the strength and invincibility of the English people, their love of freedom and determination, their readiness to always come to the rescue, and sympathy for the grief of others. Eg:
– I remember you and your sons.
I have been in their debt for a long time.
I swear on my head, said Robin Hood,
I will help you in trouble!
(excerpt from the ballad “Robin Hood and the Sheriff”, translation by S. Marshak)
During the period of romanticism, the Anglo-Scottish literary tradition of the ballad, reproducing old legends, was continued by R. Burns, W. Scott, T. Campbell and others. Lyric-epic poems written in the ballad genre were published in the poetry collection “Monuments of Ancient English Poetry” (1765) by the English writer and priest T. Percy and represent a valuable Anglo-Scottish cultural heritage.
Ballad in Germany
The meaning of the ballad in Germany corresponded to its origin: a poem written in the spirit of old English and Scottish folk songs.
The development of the ballad in German literature occurred in the 18th-19th centuries, the heyday of romanticism, when ballads by F. Schiller, G. A. Burger, L. Uland, J. V. Goethe, G. Heine and others were written, one of the most famous among which is the tragic ballad of J. V. Goethe “The Forest King” (1782).
Ballad in Russia
Due to the influence of German romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century, the ballad genre began its development in Russia. Its main representative was the outstanding Russian poet, “ballad writer” V. A. Zhukovsky, whose translations included ballads by Austro-German, Scottish and English authors. The most famous ballad by V. A. Zhukovsky “Svetlana” (1813) is a free adaptation of the ballad “Lenora” by G. Burger. The work is written in the form of a dream, tragic motives predominate in it:
ABOUT! don't know these terrible dreams
You, my Svetlana...
Be the creator, protect her!
No sadness or wound
(excerpt from the ballad “Svetlana”)
In Russian poetry, the ballad genre is also represented by A. S. Pushkin (“Song of the Prophetic Oleg”), M. Yu. Lermontov (“Airship”), A. K. Tolstoy (“Ilya Muromets”), A. A. Fetom (“Hero and Leander”), etc.
The word ballad comes from French ballade, and from Provençal balada, which means dance song.
Ballad
(French ballade, Provence balada, from Late Latin ballo - dancing) - originally a monophonic dance among the Romanesque peoples. song originating from the people. round dance songs (in Italy - ballata). In the 12th-13th centuries. along with rondo and virele, it was one of the most important musical and poetic works. art genres of troubadours and trouvères. Had a strophic structure, during the performance of each stanza solo and choir alternated.
During the Renaissance, B. acquired lyricism. character; its polyphony has developed. variety. The most developed examples of polyphonic. B. (music and text) was created in France by Guillaume de Machaut. Italian polyphonic B. was distinguished by her great closeness to the people. lawsuit. In the 15th century B. loses its former popularity; On the musical side, in France it is moving closer to chanson.
At the same time, the evolution of the people took place. B. - Ch. arr. in England, where she, gradually losing touch with dance, turned into a narrative. a song performed alternately by solo and choir. The texts of such poems are varied - political, satirical, love-lyrical, with elements of fantasy, characteristic themes of travel, adventure, etc. Nar. V. in the form of plot-narrative songs are typical for the folklore of various countries ("robber" songs in Rus', Ukrainian, Hungarian, German B., etc.).
All R. 18th century the revival of the genre of B. began in prof. European claim. Shotl collections. adv. the ballads of T. Percy (1765) and W. Scott (1802-03) attracted the attention of the Germans. poets of the Enlightenment and early romanticism (I.V. Goethe, I.G. Herder, F. Schiller, G.A. Burger), who created their own poetic works. B. These products immediately switched to music for singing with FP accompaniment. Mn. poetic B. served as the basis for the wok. ballads (for example, B. "Lenora" by Bürger set to music by I. F. Kirnberger, J. F. Reichardt, I. Andre, I. R. Zumsteg). The flourishing of vocal B. is associated with Austria. and German music of the era of romanticism, primarily with the work of F. Schubert ("The Forest King", 1815). Many of his stories show the characteristic features of a romantic. B. is a combination of the real and the fantastic, the picturesque and the dramatic. The contrast of episodes, which received a somewhat illustrative interpretation in earlier B., is combined in Schubert with the dynamics of end-to-end development. Schubert also owns a number of stanzas. B. in Nar. spirit. Simultaneously with Schubert, B. was created by K. Loewe, later by R. Schumann, F. Liszt, J. Brahms, H. Wolf. Choral music was written by F. Mendelssohn ("The First Walpurgis Night"), R. Schumann and others.
In Russian B. music is also associated with romanticism. poetry (the first Russian ballads were created by A. A. Pleshcheev to the words of V. A. Zhukovsky, then the ballads of A. N. Verstovsky, A. E. Varlamov, M. I. Glinka appeared). The genre of B. received a varied implementation from M. P. Mussorgsky ("The Forgotten"), A. P. Borodin ("The Sea"), N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov ("The Messenger"), A. G. Rubinstein ("Ballad "), P. I. Tchaikovsky ("Kings").
Wok. B. became one of the forms of solo singing in opera (R. Wagner, C. Gounod, M. I. Glinka, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. I. Tchaikovsky).
In the era of music. of romanticism, instrumental B. was formed. Epic narrative is combined in it with acutely dramatic, often plot development, bright lyricism with picturesque picturesqueness. Four ballads by F. Chopin for fp. constitute the pinnacle of instr. B. In Chopin's B. one-part free (mixed) forms, rich in drama, are used. development. FPs are also known. ballads by F. Liszt, E. Grieg, I. Brahms, A. K. Lyadov, ballad by G. Fauré for fp. with orchestra, B. and A. Vietan's polonaise for violin and piano. and etc.
In modern There are different types of music. types B. Solo and choral ballads of L. Janacek are closely related to Czech. folklore, images of people. life, often getting acutely dramatic. interpretation. X. Eisler in politics. ballads on lyrics B. Brecht refuses traditions. ballad form of "through" music. development - they are short monologues and dialogues, compressed dramatic. skits.
In Sov. music genre B. often gets heroic. or heroic-epic. interpretation ("Ballad of the Knight" from the symphonic cantata "On the Kulikovo Field" by Shaporin, "Heroic Ballad" by Babajanyan for piano and orchestra, etc.).
The term "B." sometimes used in conjunction with the designation of other genres, indicating certain features of the content of the work. (sonata by B. N. K. Medtner for piano, symphony by B. N. Ya. Myaskovsky, concert by B. A. K. Glazunov for cello and orchestra).
Literature: Pankratova V., Ballada, M., 1963; Spritta Ph., Ballade, in the book: Musikgeschichtliche Aufsätze, V., 1894; Ritter O., Die Geschichte der französischen Balladenform, Halle, 1914; Graves R., The English ballad, Oxf., 1927; Kayser W., Geschichte der deutschen Ballade, V., 1936; Entwistle J., European balladry, Oxf., 1939; Northсote S., The ballad in music, Oxf., 1942; Pattison V., Music and poetry of the English Renaissance, L., 1948; Meierhans L., Die Ballata, Bern, 1956; Engelbrecht Chr., Zur Vorgeschichte der Chopinschen Klavierballade. The book of the First International musicological congress devoted to the works of F. Chopin, Warsz., 1960; Reeney G., The development of the Rondeau, Virelae and Ballad forms from Adam de la Hale to G. de Machaut (Festschrift K. G. Feilerer), Regensburg, 1962; Katz I. J., Judeo-Spanish traditional ballads from Jerusalem, Ann Arbor, 1967 (Matthew and X., diss.); Ossenkop D. Ch., The earliest settlements of German ballads for voice and clavier, Ann Arbor, 1969 (Matthew and X., diss.); Bronson V.H., The ballad as song, Berkeley, 1969; Dömling W., Die mehrstimmigen Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais von G. de Machant. Untersuchungen, Tutzing, 1970 (Münchner Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte, Bd 16). E. M. Tsareva.
Musical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysh. 1973-1982 .
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Ballad- BALLAD in the Middle Ages among the Romanesque peoples originally meant a song, usually performed by a woman, with choral and round dance accompaniment. (Provençal balada, Italian ballata, French ballade come from folk Lat.... ... Dictionary of literary terms
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Ballad- (French ballade, from Late Latin ballo I dance), 1) in French literature of the 14th and 15th centuries. lyrical genre of solid form (F. Villon). 2) The lyroepic genre of English folk poetry and the similar genre of romanticism poetry (R. Burns, G. ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (French ballade from late Latin ballo dance), in French literature of the 14th and 15th centuries. lyric genre of solid form (F. Villon). The lyroepic genre of English folk poetry and the similar genre of romanticism poetry (R. Burns, G. Burger, I. V. Goethe, V. A ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Ballad is a genre found in literature and music. The very word “ballad” did not mean the same thing in different eras and with different composers. As one of the forms of folk poetry, the ballad has its roots in the distant Middle Ages. It experienced its heyday in the 19th century, then was forgotten for a long time, and now it is being revived again in the works of some now popular performers - Scorpions, King and Jester. It was once dance music: the late Latin word "ballo" means "to dance." Having experienced a long evolution, the ballad has developed into an epic-dramatic genre with its own typical features.
First of all, these are plot works. The plots of ballads are legendary, sometimes inspired by distant historical events or ancient legends, transformed by popular rumor. The development of the action often takes place against a darkly fantastic background, in unusual conditions. A ballad is an expanded epic canvas in which an objective narrative about the long past freely turns into a dramatic display of events; at the same time, epicness and drama do not exclude the author’s personal attitude and lyrical digressions. This interweaving of the epic, dramatic and lyrical opens up a wide scope of creative imagination. Since the end of the 18th century, romanticism has been spreading - a new artistic movement that replaced classicism. The term "romanticism" refers to the concept of "romance", which was associated with the realm of the whimsical and fantastic. “Romantic” were considered such works of musical art (as well as literature and painting), where fantasy, imagination, direct liveliness in the depiction of emotional states prevail over balance and restraint, i.e. advantages inherent primarily in the art of classicism. In addition to all this, from the end of the 18th century and especially in the 19th century, interest in folklore increased sharply. It is not surprising that it was at this time that the ballad became one of the most beloved genres, because it has everything that can attract poets and musicians of the romantic genre - an ancient legend at its core, heightened emotionality.
In poetry, the ballad owes its revival and new life to Goethe, Schiller, and Heine. There are much more names in music - Zumsteg, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg; This genre also spread to Russia - Verstovsky, Varlamov, Borodin, Mussorgsky... Each composer had his own unique style and brought something new to the ballad genre. Moreover, if a composer has written several works of the same genre, each of them has its own plot, its own characteristics, mood, and individual composition. Among all the options, there are two main types of ballads - vocal and instrumental. If we talk specifically about the vocal ballad, then " Forest King" by Schubert remains his most perfect creation in this new genre of romantic music and one of the most striking examples of this genre in general.
The facts cited by the composer’s friends and biographers seem almost implausible. Joseph Spaun writes about how the ballad “The Forest King” was created: “One afternoon Mayrhofer and I went to see Schubert, who was then living with his father on Himmelpfortgrund. We found Schubert very excited, reading loudly from the book “The Forest King.” He walked back and forth with the book several times, suddenly he sat down, and in a very short time, as quickly as one can write down, the beautiful ballad was already written down on paper.” (Spawn Joseph, Memoirs of Schubert). The ballad “The King of the Forest” brought particular success to Schubert. Along with other songs and ensembles, the ballad was publicly performed for the first time at a large academy held in the spring of 1821 at the Kärntnerton Theater in Vienna. On this occasion, the Viennese newspaper "Summler" wrote: "This ballad, performed on March 7 by the famous singer of the court opera, Mr. Vogl, at a concert organized by noble ladies for a charitable purpose, was so liked by its music that it had to be repeated at the general request. This work “has been performed before in the best houses where music is played, and everywhere Schubert’s work has received well-deserved, that is, the most noisy success.”
Real persons - the narrator, the father, the child - are united by the closeness of the intonation structure. But in accordance with the text, new touches are always introduced into the music of the ballad, which highlight the individual traits and state of each character. The dramatic remarks of real characters are contrasted with the alluring, enticing sweetness of the speeches of the forest king. Please note that the third time, when attempts to lure the child give way to threats, development reaches maximum tension and a dynamic reprise develops into the culmination of the entire work (listening to music). The harsh laconicism of the final phrase uttered by the narrator emphasizes even more sharply the tragedy of the situation. Schubert puts the dense fantasticality of the painting “The Forest King”, the gloomy night, the mad galloping of the horse, the delusional ideas of a dying child into real images of the real world, which makes the drama of what is happening more tangible and acutely impressive. “The Forest King” is a free composition, the musical structure of which is subordinated to the development of the plot.