(Fr., from Lat. ballare, dance). A term of widely ranging meanings. It first applied to trouvère songs and vocal compositions of ARS NOVA. Among the most significant ballades in a POLYPHONIC (multipart) vocal form are those by GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT; later development of the French genre were BERGERETTES and pastoral songs of the 18th century.

In the Romantic period the ballade had become either a balladlike art song or an instrumental solo piece, as applied by German-speaking composers. FRANZ SCHUBERT and ROBERT SCHUMANN set many popular poems by Goethe, Schiller, and other current poets, in which all stanzas were sung to the same music. A more elaborate type of ballade was durchkomponiert (THROUGH-COMPOSED), in which each stanza could be set to different music.

Instrumental ballades were designed as wordless narratives, with FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN'S ballades for piano the greatest examples. Piano ballades were also written by FRANZ LISZT, JOHANNES BRAHMS, and EDVARD GRIEG.