- Related Topics:
- Poetry
- chant royal
- formes fixes
- Bar
- envoi
ballade
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What is a ballade?
The ballade is a lyric poetry and song form with three stanzas and a shorter dedicatory stanza called an envoi. All stanzas share the same rhyme scheme and final line, which creates a refrain.
This fixed verse was common in French lyric poetry and song, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries. The 14th century also saw the emergence of the polyphonic ballade, especially due to the works of Guillaume de Machaut.
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How is a ballade different from other types of poems?
A ballade is a French verse form with three stanzas and a shorter final stanza called an envoi. These components differentiate it from other types of poems.
All stanzas share the same rhyme scheme and final line, which creates a refrain. Each of the three main stanzas has three sections, where the first two share a rhyme scheme. The envoi serves as a summary or dedication and typically addresses the person to whom the poem is written.
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What is the traditional structure of a poetic ballade?
A traditional poetic ballade has a strict structure, cultivated in French lyric poetry and song during the 14th and 15th centuries. It is one of the formes fixes ("fixed forms").
The structure includes three stanzas and a shorter, final dedicatory stanza called the prince or envoi. All stanzas share the same rhyme scheme and concluding line, which serves as a refrain. Each of the three main stanzas consists of three sections, with the first two sharing a rhyme scheme.
The total form can be expressed as:
a a b
b a a
b a b
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How were ballades used in medieval music and poetry?
The ballade is a French poetic and musical form that was especially popular in the 14th and 15th centuries. The troubadours, poet-musicians in southern France, were among the first to use the ballade form.
Musical ballades consist of three stanzas with the same rhyme scheme and a shortened final stanza called an envoi. The ballade was among the most important of the formes fixes, and composers like Guillaume de Machaut used it to express deep emotions in solemn and formal songs.
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What is a refrain in a ballade, and why is it important?
In a ballade, a refrain is a phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout the poem, typically at the end of each stanza. In the strict form of a ballade, all stanzas share the same rhyme scheme and final line, which becomes the refrain.
The refrain is important because of its lyrical and incantatory effect during the performance, but in print, it can seem unnecessary. The interwoven refrain is a concession to the musical dimension of the ballad. It may consist of nonsense syllables or irrelevant rigmaroles. The refrain is just one of the many kinds of repetition employed in ballads.
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How have ballades influenced modern poetry and song?
The ballade, a form of French lyric poetry and song from the 14th and 15th centuries, consists of three stanzas and a shorter final stanza called an envoi. All stanzas share the same rhyme scheme and final line, which creates a refrain.
Though the ballade form gradually disappeared, it reappeared later as a conscious archaism. The ballad, sharing origins with the ballade in the Old Occitan word balada, evolved into a slow, sentimental song prevalent across pop music genres like rock, soul, and country. Rock balladeers such as Roy Orbison and Charlie Rich infused Tin Pan Alley sentiment with a new, melancholy edge.
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ballade, one of several formes fixes (âfixed formsâ) in French lyric poetry and song, cultivated particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries (compare rondeau; virelai). Strictly, the ballade consists of three stanzas and a shortened final dedicatory stanza. All the stanzas have the same rhyme scheme and the same final line, which thus forms a refrain (R). Each of the three main stanzas is built in three sections, the first two of which have the same rhyme scheme. The total form can be expressed:
The final dedicatory stanza is called the prince (because that is usually its first word), or the envoi. The chant royal is similar to the ballade but has five main stanzas.
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The general shape of the ballade is present in the poetry of many ages. The odes of the Greek poet Pindar (5th century bc) have the same stanza form with their strophe, antistrophe, and epode. Much of the art song of the 16th century in Germany is cast in a similar form, though normally without the envoi or the refrain line; when in Richard Wagnerâs music drama Die Meistersinger (1868) Fritz Kothner defines a Bar (a poetic form) as consisting of several Gesetze (âstanzasâ), each made up of two Stollen (a a) and an Abgesang (b), he is accurately describing a historical reality. But in its purest form the ballade is found only in France and England.
The immediate precursors of the ballade can be found in the songs of the troubadours (poet-musicians using the Provençal language), which frequently employ the a a b stanza pattern with an envoi. They normally have more than three stanzas, however, and the refrain line, if there is one, is often not the last line of the stanza. In the later 13th century the standard form appears more and more frequently in the French songs of the trouvÚres (the northern counterparts of the troubadours).
The songs of the trouvĂšres and troubadours are monophonic (having one melody line or voice part). The history of the polyphonic ballade begins with Guillaume de Machaut, the leading French poet and composer of the 14th century. He wrote more songs in this than in any other form. In his work can be seen the gradual emergence of a standard manner of setting a ballade and in particular the convention of closing the second a section with a musical epilogue that is repeated at the end of the stanza.
The ballade was the most expansive of the formes fixes, and Machaut used it to express the loftiest emotions. The texts more often contained elaborate symbolism and classical references than did those of the other formes fixes. Later in the 14th century, the ballade was used for the most solemn and formal songs: the celebration of special patrons, the commemoration of magnificent occasions, the declarations of love in the highest style.
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In the 15th century the form became less popular. The foremost Burgundian composer, Guillaume Dufay, wrote few ballades, almost all of which can be connected with specific occasions and all early in his life. Later in the century, musical ballades are rare except in the work of English composers. Among the two greatest songwriters of the later 15th century, Antoine Busnois wrote no ballades, and Jean dâOckeghem wrote just oneâon the occasion of the death of another famed song composer, Gilles Binchois, in 1460.
The form gradually disappeared among the poets, too, only to reappear spasmodically in the work of later writers as a conscious archaism. But there are fine examples from the 15th century among the work of Alain Chartier, Charles, Duke dâOrlĂ©ans, and Jean Molinet; and François Villonâs best-known poem is a ballade with the refrain line âMais oĂč sont les neiges dâantan?â (âBut where are the snows of yesteryear?â).