What is a ballad? Genre ballad and its characteristics

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

This literary genre is not particularly popular in the modern world and is something very unusual and refined. This is largely because this form of storytelling is very complex and requires skill and real talent from the author. It is very easy for a person familiar with the literary world to explain what a ballad is.

Folklore chant

Ballad is a lyrical work with an epic plot. This form of narration gives the writer the opportunity to use a large number of expressive means, enhance the emotionality of the text with the help of alliteration and assonance, emphasize the beauty of the character's direct speech using beautiful rhymes. Most often, the plot of ballads is associated with folklore, some kind of heroic stories and legends. It is not uncommon to come across songs with the title "Ballad of a Hero", "Ballad of a Warrior" and the like. It is always assumed that the ballad can be set to music, so it is read almost in a singsong voice. Ideally, the ballad to which the music is written should containa large number of assonances for the softest sound.

The song flows sweetly

To understand what a ballad is, you need to read at least a small excerpt from a work of this genre. Usually ballads are not easily perceived by the modern reader, just as it is inconvenient for him to perceive any large poetic text. Attention is diverted to the form of the narration, and the events described seem to be passed "by the ears", and an unprepared reader will rather notice the beauty of the rhyme than be able to follow the details of the plot and the motives of the characters. Perhaps that is why the ballad genre is not very common, and few of the “uninitiated” know exactly what a ballad is. For most, it is associated with the literature of ancient times, when the ability to use an elevated style was a must for every author. Today, poetry has become much simpler, and this also applies to song lyrics. Much more attention is paid to the visual design of the video clip than to the textual content of the modern song. However, even now modern, modernized ballads are being born, again returning listeners to the past.

France is the birthplace of the genre

Clearly explain what a ballad is, best of all with a specific example. We should start with French literature, since it was in France that this attractive type of literary creativity was born. It was in this state that the ballad genre appeared as a result of the abolition of the canzone in the last decades of the 13th century. It can be said that the French love song "evolved" into something moreserious and deep, into a style with a more complex form and extensive content. One of the very first ballads in France was created by La Fontaine, known throughout the world for his immortal fables. His ballads were quite simple in content and form, so later they were mercilessly criticized by more experienced and sophisticated ballad writers. The same moods, the same properties that Lafontaine's fables had, the writer transferred to his ballads. A good example of a French, almost contemporary ballad is Victor Hugo's La ballade de la nonne. His skill in writing works of this genre once again confirms the skill of the writer.

Ballads of Foggy Albion

The ballad genre was also widespread in England. It is believed that the genre itself was brought to the lands of Foggy Albion by the Norman conquerors. On the territory of England, the ballad acquired even more serious features, began to touch on gloomy topics and significantly changed in mood. Who knows, maybe the fog did its job. First, the British sang the Scandinavian god Odin, and then smoothly moved on to the theme of the exploits of Scottish heroes. In these ballads, the national flavor of this country is very clearly observed, which cannot be confused with anything else. Few people have not heard the story of Robin Hood, the prince of thieves who robs the rich and gives the loot to the poor. The British also composed ballads about him. English literary works in the ballad genre also deal extensively with the theme of the adventures of King Arthur and his knights. Evennow it's not hard to imagine how tired heroes sit comfortably around the fire, take lutes and sing ballads to each other about the search for the Holy Grail and the magic of the great Merlin Ambrosius.

Severe German ballads

Like the English, German ballad writers also preferred the dark and serious, so German ballads have a heavy atmosphere. The best ballads in Germany were created in the heyday of romanticism. Famous writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gottfried August Burger and Heinrich Heine tried their pen in this genre. The German character of these authors can be traced even in such a refined literary work as a ballad. Goethe's ballad called "Der Erlkönig" is very famous. There are several translations of this title, but "King of the Elves" is the most commonly seen. The plot of this ballad is very sad and almost stereotypically severe in German. The ballad describes the death of a young boy, presumably at the hands of this same elf king. At the same time, it is impossible to say for sure that the ballad has a mystical character. It is possible that the boy was dying of an illness, and he simply dreamed of supernatural beings in a fever.

Ballads of the present

The definition of the ballad genre is somewhat blurry today. In modern times, this literary genre has become lighter and simplified, but has not lost its authenticity. Examples of such works, or at least songs similar to a ballad, can be found all the time in the work of folk groups. For example, the bands Fleur and "Melnitsa" sometimes use the word "ballad" directly in their songs, which makes them sound more romantic and refined. Sometimes ballads are heard in films on historical or heroic themes, and sometimes you can hear them in computer games. The best example of this is the relatively new game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where bards sing beautiful ballads about local heroes and conquerors. A literary genre with such beauty is unlikely to ever completely lose its relevance.