The ballad

THE  BALLAD

The ballad is a poetic writing originated from a popular medieval tradition. The word "ballad" comes from the Latin "ballare" (to dance), in fact it is related to song and dance. It consists usually in some strophes made by lines of the same size, of same number, with same rimes and with a short envoy: at the end of every strophe and envoy, there is always the same line (refrain). They have a relationship with the romances in verse of the Middle Age: they increase the repetition and rhythm; and have rich ornament in the description of heroes.

There are different kinds of ballad: the ancient ballad (the popular one written by common people), the romantic ballad (the literary one written by learned poets ) and the modern popular one (that songs set in Australia and US, about the deeds of cowboy and railwaymen, miners, outlaws).

THE ANCIENT BALLAD

ENGLAND-The popular ballad are always written in stanzas of two or four lines. The ballad differs from all other narrative poetic writings and way to tell stories, because it deals with only one tale and treats it dramatically. There are many dialogues, and a narrator who often is impersonal, and there aren't moral or didactic aim. The ballads deal with many different themes, so they can be classified according to themes: magic ones (about ghost, witches and great imaginative powers, like Lord Randal and Kemp Owyne ); border ones (about wars between the English and Scottish people); ones of loves and tragedy; ones of outlaws (like Robin Hood).

FRANCE-. It was a kind of composition cultivated by French trovères; at the origins it was executed by an only voice and then it became polyphonic. It became very popular at Luigi's XIV court. The main representative was Guillaume de Machault, other very important representatives are Charles d'Orleans and François Villon that they transmitted the light sensuality and the kindness of the tone. The themes are takes from the epic- narrative genre and it develops in the Frankish-Flemish area.

ITALY-The ancient was born and develops in Italy in the XIII century , where it had a great popularity until the XV century. At the beginning only one person sang it and the dancer performed the "dance in the circle"; then it will be sing by more voices.

The main element was the refrain that has repeated as the French and English ballad.

The first times it had a character exclusively secular and its themes was about love. Then thanks to the success of formula and the detachment from the role of the dance accompaniment there were religious ballads too.

The ballad, which was born in Florence and Bologna like shape of art with popular character, had brought at levels of artistic perfection by the stilnovisti like Dante and Cavalcanti. Then Cino da Pistoia, Petrarca, Boccaccio etc...The metric structure had more freedom. The last and the more important flourishing was

near Medici. In the next century it declined ; it was born again for the short time in XIX century with Carducci.

THE ROMANTIC BALLAD

In the Romantic Age the culture of Middle Age becomes fashionable. So many romantic poets imitated middle age kind of writing, among the other things the same ballad. But the new romantic ballad  is different from the first one and it is a particular poem. The only thing that is common to all ballads is the refrain and their particular way of telling a story, that is, their narrative technique. They present the narrative not as a continuous sequence of events, but as a series of rapid flashes. They use simple language and incremental repetition technique to allow the listener or reader to concentrate on plot. It reaches in the romantic period the higher perfection. This ballad was written by learned poets who adapted this form to their own poetic needs. The themes are very different: old epic legends, knightly legends, historical episodes, local legends: but for the social contest, it speaks about human feelings: emotions and imagination are very important for romantic people. It flowers principally in Germany where prevailed the fantastic element and in England where it had a legendary and epic character. The more important writers of the romantic period were in Germany Goethe and Schiller, in England Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly and Keats.