Ballad 4575 225933763 2008-07-16T02:21:53Z 99.253.254.98 {{Unreferenced|date=December 2007}} {{otheruses}} [[Image:The-Twa-Corbies.jpg|right|thumb|Illustration by [[Arthur Rackham]] of the ballad ''[[The Twa Corbies]]'']] A '''ballad''' is a poem usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a [[song]]. Any myth form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It usually has foreshortened, alternating four-stress lines ("[[Common metre#Ballad metre|ballad meter]]") and simple repeating [[rhyme]]s, often with a [[refrain]]. If it is based on a political or religious theme, a ballad may be a [[hymn]]. It should not be confused with the [[ballade]], a 14th and 15th century French verse form. ==Broadsheet ballads== {{main|Broadside (music)}} {{see also|Child Ballads}} 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 (mythology)|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 [[monarchism|Royalist]] ballads contributed to 17th century political discourse. In a sense, these ballads were antecedents of the modern [[newspaper]]. [[Thomas Percy (bishop)|Thomas Percy]], [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|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. ==Literary 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 late 18th century, though there are precedents for this kind of literary attraction to ballad in earlier literature, such as the 15th century pastourelle ''[[Robene and Makyne]]''. Literary ballads may be set to music. [[Franz Schubert|Schubert's]] ''[[Der Erlkönig]]'' and [[Die Bürgschaft|The Hostage]], set literary ballads by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] (see also ''[[Der Zauberlehrling]]'') and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]]. 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 [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber's]] ''[[Der Freischutz|Der Freischütz]]'' and include Senta's ballad in [[Richard Wagner|Wagner's]] ''[[Der fliegende Holländer]]'', or the 'old song' 'Salce' [[Desdemona (Othello)|Desdemona]] sings in [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi's]] ''[[Otello]]''. Compare the stanza-like structure and narrative atmosphere of the musical [[Ballades]] for solo piano of [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] or [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. ==Ballad opera== {{main|Ballad opera}} 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 strophes usually alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter, though this is not always the case. ==Popular song== {{main|Ballad (music)}} In the [[20th Century]], "ballad" took on the meaning of a popular song "especially of a romantic or sentimental nature" (''American Heritage Dictionary''). Casting directors often divide songs into two categories: "ballads" (slower or sentimental songs) and "up" tunes (faster or happier songs). A [[power ballad]] is a love song delivered with power often using rock instruments. ==Famous ballads== {{Cleanup-laundry|date=January 2008}} ===Traditional=== [[Image:012-O-Waken,-Waken,-Burd-Isbel-q75-404x500.jpg|right|thumb|Illustration by [[Arthur Rackham]] to ''[[Young Bekie]]''.]] *[[Akilattirattu Ammanai]] *[[Ballad of Chevy Chase]] *[[Ballad of Jesse James]] *[[Ballad of Keawaiki]] *[[Barbara Allen (song)]] *[[Edward (ballad)|Edward]] *[[Fields of Athenry]] *[[Golden Vanity]] *[[Greensleeves]] *[[Henry Martin]] *[[John Barleycorn]] *[[Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier]] *[[La Belle Dame Sans Merci]] *[[Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight]] *[[Lochinvar]] *[[Lord Randall]] *[[Lord Willoughby]] *[[Lovely Joan]] *[[The Luck of Edenhall (User talk:Argee)]] *[[Lyke-Wake Dirge]] *[[The Man from Snowy River (poem)|The Man From Snowy River]] *Many ballads of [[Robin Hood]] *[[Mary Hamilton]] *[[Mary Tamlin]] *[[Me and You (ballad)|Me and You]] *[[Molly and Tenbrooks]] (aka "The Racehorse Song") *[[Oh Shenandoah]] *[[The Rising of the Moon]] *[[Rocky Road to Dublin]] *[[Scarborough Fair]] *[[Sir Patrick Spens]] *[[Tam Lin]] *[[The Ballad of Mulan]] *[[The Ballad of Reading Gaol]] *[[The Ballad of Sal Villanueva]] *[[The Battle of Harlaw]] *[[The Battle of New Orleans]] *[[The Battle of Otterburn]] *[[The Colour of his Hair]] *[[The Cruel Brother]] *[[The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry]] *[[The Gypsy Laddie]] *[[The Highwayman (poem)|The Highwayman]] *[[The Hostage (ballad)|The Hostage]] *[[The Mines of Avondale]] *[[The Three Ravens]] *[[Thomas the Rhymer]] *[[Vadakkan Pattukal]] *[[Verner Raven]] - oldest Scandinavian ballad with music ===Modern=== *[[Washed Away]] *[[Wind of Change]] *[[I Must Be Dreaming]] *[[The Ecstasy of Gold]] *[[Ballad of Buckethead]] *[[Ballad of a Dead Soldier]] *[[Ballad of a Thin Man]] *[[Ballad of Davy Crockett]] *[[Ballad of the Alamo]] *[[Ballad of the Green Berets]] *[[Bohemian Rhapsody]] *[[Carry On Wayward Son]] *[[Fade to Black (song)|Fade to Black]] *[[Frankie and Johnny (song)|Frankie and Johnny]] *[[Frankie Silver]] *[[Hotel California]] *[[Hurricane (song)|Hurricane]] *[[I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night]] *[[Infinite Dreams]] *[[It Must Have Been Love]] *[[Listening to Freddie Mercury]] *[[Me And Bobby McGee]] *[[Nothing Else Matters]] *[[November Rain]] *[[Sweet Child O' Mine]] *[[Ode to Billie Joe]] *[[On Top of Spaghetti]] *[[Piano Man (song)|Piano Man]] *[[She's Leaving Home]] *[[Space Oddity]] *[[Spread Your Wings]] *[[Stairway to Heaven]] *[[Dazed and Confused (song)#Led Zeppelin|Dazed and Confused]] *[[Still Loving You]] *[[The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins]] *[[The Ballad of Curtis Lowe]] *[[The Ballad Of Gerda And Tore]] *[[Gilligan's_Island#Theme_song|The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle]] *[[The Ballad of John and Yoko]] *[[Mack the Knife|The Ballad of Mack the Knife]] *The Ballad Of Moon Dog Mayne *[[The Ballad of The Sneak]] *[[The Devil Went Down to Georgia]] *[[The Unforgiven (song)|The Unforgiven]] *[[The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald]] *[[Tom's Diner]] *[[Trapped in the Closet]] *[[Two Out of Three Ain't Bad]] *[[Uneasy Rider]] *[[Welcome Home (Sanitarium)]] *[[Where the Wild Roses Grow]] == See also == {{commonscat|Ballads}} * [[List of folk song collections]] * [[Francis James Child]] * [[Alfred Perceval Graves|Graves, Alfred Perceval]] ==External links== *[http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ballads.htm The Bodleian Library Ballad Collection: view facsimiles of printed ballads] *[http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/BalladSearch.html The Traditional Ballad Index] *[http://www.ericzorn.com/music/murder/ Murder Ballads] *[http://mysongbook.de/msb/songlist.html English and some German ballads] *[http://www.contemplator.com/ Folk Music, Child Ballads, Popular Songs In American History, Sea Shanties etc.] *[http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/broadside-ballads/broadside-ballads.html Black-letter Broadside Ballads Of The years 1595-1639 From The Collection Of Samuel Pepys] *[http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/archives_05.aspx Smithsonian Global Sound: The Music of Poetry] - audio samples of poems, hymns and songs in ballad meter. *[http://www.visearkivet.no/pdf_filer/diverse_artikler/english/all_for_his_maiden_fair.pdf Velle Espeland, ...all for his maiden fair: The Scandinavian ballads] *[http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/oxford-ballads/ballads-oxford-book-of.html The Oxford Book of Ballads, colplete 1910 book by Arthur Quiller-Couch] <!-- redundant --> [[Category:Ballads| ]] [[Category:Folk music]] [[Category:Musical forms]] [[Category:Poetic form]] [[Category:Song forms]] [[bg:Балада]] [[ca:Balada]] [[cs:Balada]] [[cy:Baled]] [[da:Ballade]] [[de:Ballade]] [[eo:Balado]] [[es:Balada]] [[fi:Balladi]] [[fr:Ballade]] [[he:בלדה]] [[hu:Ballada]] [[ja:バラッド]] [[nl:Ballade]] [[no:Ballade]] [[pl:Ballada]] [[pt:Balada]] [[ro:Baladă]] [[ru:Баллада]] [[sk:Balada]] [[sl:Balada]] [[sv:Ballad]] [[tl:Balada]] [[uk:Балада]] Possible sources:www.poemhunter.com/poems/ballad/ or www.poemsabout.com/ballad/