What a ballad. Meaning of the word ballad. Ballad in Russia

BALLAD, -s, f. 1. A lyrical or lyric-epic poem of a special form on a historical, usually legendary, theme. 2. Solo musical work of a narrative or heroic-epic nature. || adj. ballad, th, th.

Watch value BALLAD in other dictionaries

Ballad- ballad. lyrical poetic narrative based on tradition. ballad, pertaining to a ballad; balladeer m. writer of ballads, which were sung eg. in Scotland,........
Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Ballad- ballads, (it. ballata). 1. A poem with a narrative plot on a legendary or fairy-tale theme (lit.). 2. A poem of three verses of eight lines and the fourth, ........
Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

Ballade J.— 1. Genre of lyrical poetry with a narrative plot on a legendary, historical, fairy tale or everyday theme. 2. A separate work of this genre. 3. Vocal or........
Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova

Ballad- -s; and. [French] ballade].
1. Genre of lyric poetry with a narrative plot on a legendary, historical, fairy tale or everyday theme; work in this genre.
2. Vocal........
Explanatory Dictionary of Kuznetsov

Ballad- (French ballade - from late Latin ballo - I dance), in French literature of the 14-15 centuries. lyrical genre of solid form (F. Villon). Lyric epic genre of English folk poetry and similar ........
Big encyclopedic dictionary

Ballad- (French ballade, from Latin ballo, I dance), a folklore genre among the peoples of Europe, originally a round dance song with a refrain (among Romance peoples) or a lyrical song with a choral ........
Historical dictionary

Ballad- Probably, you read this poem by Lermontov: On the blue waves of the ocean, Only the stars will flash in the sky, A lonely ship rushes, Rushing in full sail. Don't bend........
Music dictionary

This term has such a long history that it is unlikely that it will be possible to concisely and simply answer the question of what a ballad is in literature. However, there are a few key points that should certainly come to your mind if you happen to meet something like this on the screen or in the book. Something that will help you immediately recognize the genre. So let's start with a general definition of a ballad.

What it is?

A ballad is a work written in a special poetic (sometimes text-musical form), which tells about an event with lyrical, dramatic, and later romantic elements.

Historians found the earliest ballads in the south of France (in Provence), in manuscripts of the 13th century.

What is a ballad in literature, it was easiest to understand at that time. Otherwise, it was also called a "dance" (round dance) song.

Their performers were trouvères and troubadours - itinerant singers, who were often accompanied by jugglers who performed with them and often served them. Today, quite a lot is known about the names of medieval troubadours, among them were representatives of different classes: knights, children of the poor and aristocrats.

Genre and form development

What is a classic French ballad in literature? Formally, it consisted of 28 lines (verses), had 4 stanzas: 3 of them were 8 lines each and the last stanza - the so-called "premise" - had 4 lines. The final one served as an appeal to the person to whom the entire work was dedicated.

As with many song forms, the refrain was important to the French ballad. It was contained in every stanza, including the premise. These traits helped shape the definition of the 15th-century French ballad.

"Provencal" works did not have a clear plot. In essence, it was a lyric poem about love, which was most often sung, being built according to a certain canon.

The ballad also penetrated into Italy. There she was called "ballata". The difference was that the "premise" was the beginning. However, the Italians did not particularly care about strict compliance with the canons of form and the refrain. What is a ballad in literature, they understood quite freely. "Ballata" are typical for the love lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio.

An English ballad that is neither French nor Italian. It was a lyrical-epic narrative and told about a legend or historical event. As a rule, it consisted of quatrains without strict adherence to the number of lines and stanzas.

By the 18th century, the plotless lyrical ballad as a genre finally disappears. It is replaced by a poetic story about a terrible or sad romantic event.

Ballad themes

Thematically, a French song is an essay about love in a poetic or musical-poetic form. An outstanding master in the canonical definition of a ballad and its composition is the master of medieval poets Guillaume de Machaux (XIV century, France).

Significantly expanded the theme of Francois Villon, a poet of the 15th century. The themes of his ballads are very diverse and not at all courtly. Here, judge only by their names: "The Ballad of the Hanged", "The Ballad of Opposites" ("I'm dying of thirst over the stream, I laugh through my tears and work, playing ..."), "The Ballad of Truths on the contrary", "The Ballad of Good Advice", "Old French ballad” (“Where are the apostles saints with crucifixes made of amber?”), “Ballad-prayer”, etc.

Bards singing old English and Scottish folk songs sang for the most part about the exploits and feasts of knights and various heroes - from Odin to Robin Hood and King Edward IV.

Some ballads could even be based on very real historical events. Here, for example, is the work "On the Battle of Durham." It tells about how King David of Scotland, in the absence of the English King Edward, who left to fight in France, decided to take over England. Historically, this tradition refers listeners to a specific historical battle in 1346 in which the Scots were defeated.

Western medieval song

Starting from the 17th century, poets began to actively use the ballad genre, which could not but leave an imprint on both the subject matter and the style of their writing and construction. However, as before, the song told about events of a sometimes playful, but most often dramatic and adventure nature.

Understanding what a ballad is in literature is facilitated by reading the works of the 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns. Based on ancient legends and songs, he created many of them. For example, the ballads "John Barleycorn", "Once Lived in Aberdeen", "The Ballad of the Miller and His Wife", "Findlay" and others. Just don't look for following the French canons in them.

Ballads were written by La Fontaine, Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, Hugo, Stevenson. Later, this genre had a great influence on German romantic literature. Moreover, in Germany, the meaning of a poetic composition written “based on English folk songs” was fixed behind the word “ballad”.

In Germany, the genre came into vogue at the end of the 18th century, which helped to define it as a romantic composition. The plots were typical for loving singers.

For example, the famous ballad Lenora by Gottfried Burger is based on an old legend about a dead groom who returned from the war to his bride. He calls her to go to get married, she gets on his horse, and he brings her to the cemetery, to the open grave. This ballad, which became a model for romantics, had a great influence, in particular, on the famous Russian poet of the 19th century Vasily Zhukovsky, who not only translated it, but also freely translated it into two of his own works - “Svetlana” and “Lyudmila”.

Such poets as Alexander Pushkin, Edgar Poe, Adam Mickiewicz also turned to Lenore (the name of the heroine became a household name).

Romantics were especially attracted by the elements of myths, fairy tales in ballads, which corresponded to the romantic desire for the mysterious and enigmatic, beyond the limits of everyday life.

Ballad in Russian literature

The genre appeared not without the influence of German romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century. Already mentioned above, Zhukovsky, whom his contemporaries called the "ballade player", worked on translations of the works of G. Burger, F. Schiller, I. V. Goethe, L. Uhland and other authors.

A. Pushkin's poems "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg", "Demons", "The Drowned Man" were written in the ballad style. M. Lermontov did not pass by with the work "Airship". Y. Polonsky also has ballads: “The Sun and the Moon”, “Forest”.

However, in Russian literature, songs of the French type were written by poets of the Silver Age (I. Severyanin, V. Bryusov, N. Gumilyov, V. Shershenevich), when there was great interest in "exotic" poetic forms.

Read, for example, the “package” with a refrain - the last stanza from N. Gumilyov’s “Ballad”:

To you, my friend, I will give this song.

I have always believed in your footsteps

When you led, tender and punishing,

You knew everything, you knew that we

Shine the radiance of pink paradise!

During the Great Patriotic War, the so-called political ballad, which has a tragic connotation, was popular in Soviet literature. She received a clear, well-considered plot and rhythm.

See, for example, "The Ballad of the Nails" by N. Tikhonov, "The Ballad of the Boy" by A. Zharov, "The Ballad of the Order" by A. Bezymensky and others.

Conclusion

So, in order to understand what a ballad is in literature, it is necessary to understand that one of its main genre features is a plot story about an event. Not necessarily real.

The event, however, could only be outlined schematically. It served to express the main idea of ​​the work, lyrical or philosophical overtones. The number of characters is insignificant and most often minimal, for example, two. In this case, the ballad takes the form of a dialogue-roll call.

Such are the poems "Nancy and Wilsey" by Burns and "Borodino" by Lermontov. Zhukovsky's works are endowed with lyrical meaning and expression, Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg" with philosophical meaning, and Lermontov's "Borodino" with socio-psychological meaning.

Let's look at what a ballad is and where this word came from. The word "ballad" came to us from the Italian language ("ballare" - "to dance"). So in the old days dance songs were called.

Ballads were written in poetic form, there were many verses, and they were performed to some instrument. Over time, when they stopped dancing to the ballad, it began to have a serious, epic meaning.

What is a ballad in literature

In the Middle Ages, ballads turned into songs with everyday themes, which told about the exploits of knights, raids of robbers, historical warriors, or any other events related to people's lives. The basis of all ballads is conflict. It could arise between parents and children, between a girl and a young man, on the basis of social inequality, the invasion of enemies.

The emotional impact of ballads in literature is based on the fact that the tragic conflict between life and death helps to understand and appreciate the meaning of life.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the ballad practically ceased to exist as a literary genre, because during this period of time, mythological plays or plays about the heroes of ancient history were staged on the stages of classical theaters. All this was far from the people and their way of life, and the main content of the ballads was the people.

In the 19th century, the ballad appeared again in literary and musical art. It became a poetic genre and received a new sound in the works of Zhukovsky (his contemporaries called him the “ballade player”), as well as Pushkin and Lermontov, Goethe and Heine, Mickiewicz.

What is a ballad in music

It is interesting that when the royal opera became curious due to its exorbitant seriousness and conventionality, the composers J. Pepusch and J. Gay created simple ballads instead of arias and complex compositions for fun. They called their work "The Beggar's Opera" (1728), and it is known as the "ballad opera".

Like poets, composers also reached out to her. They used the lyrics and features of the ballads in their works such as:

• "Forest King" Schubert;
• "Forgotten" by Mussorgsky;
• "Night review" Glinka.

Composers tried to convey the same pictorial plot of ballads in music as in literature. For example, the rhythm of a fast jump in the ballad "Forest King" by Schubert.

In the 20th century, Soviet composers also often wrote ballads for chorus and instruments.

For example, you probably know such works as:

• “On the Kulikovo Field”, and “The Ballad of a Soldier” by V.P. Solovyov-Sedogo;
• The ballad "Vityaz" by Yu. A. Shaporin;
• dramatic ballads by N. P. Rakov.

Nowadays, modern music also uses lyrical ballads.

The section is very easy to use. In the proposed field, just enter the desired word, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-building dictionaries. Here you can also get acquainted with examples of the use of the word you entered.

Meaning of the word ballad

ballad in the crossword dictionary

ballad

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Vladimir Dal

ballad

ballad w. lyrical poetic narrative based on tradition. ballad, pertaining to a ballad; balladeer m. writer of ballads, which were sung eg. in Scotland, as we have Dumas in Little Russia.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

ballad

ballads, (it. ballata).

A poem with a narrative plot on a legendary or fairy-tale theme (lit.).

A poem of three verses of eight lines and the fourth, called a parcel, in four lines, and the rhymes, as well as the last line (chorus) in all four verses are the same (lit.).

A type of vocal or instrumental piece of music (music). Finn's ballad from the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila". French ballad (lit.) - a ballad in 2 meanings.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova.

ballad

A lyric or lyric-epic poem of a special form on a historical, usually legendary, theme.

Solo musical work of a narrative or heroic-epic nature.

adj. ballad, th, th.

New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

ballad

Genre of lyric poetry with a narrative plot on a legendary, historical, fairy tale or everyday theme.

A separate work of this genre.

A vocal or instrumental work of a narrative nature.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

ballad

BALLAD (French ballade, from late Latin ballo - I dance) in French literature of the 14th-15th centuries. lyrical genre of solid form (F. Villon). The lyrical epic genre of English folk poetry and the similar genre of romantic poetry (R. Burns, G. Burger, I. V. Goethe, V. A. Zhukovsky). Romantic ballads are a plot poem built on fantastic, folklore, legendary-historical, everyday material, with a gloomy, mysterious color. In the 20th century the ballad loses its genre severity (separate poems by B. Brecht, N. S. Tikhonov). Ballads were embodied in music in the form of solo vocal compositions accompanied by piano (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Liszt, H. Wolf); instrumental ballads were also created (mainly piano ballads: F. Chopin, F. Liszt, E. Grieg). 3) In music, a song genre found in many nations, originating from ancient round dance songs and dances. Typical features of a ballad are a combination of epic narrative and lyricism, slow or moderate tempo. In the folk music of American Negroes, an original type of ballad has developed, which has some commonality with the blues and has retained a connection with African traditions. In jazz, the lyrical ballad style of instrumental playing and singing has become widespread.

Ballad

(French ballade, Provence balada, from late Latin ballo - I dance), the name of several very different poetic and musical genres. Initially, among the Romanesque peoples of the Middle Ages, there was a lyrical dance song with an obligatory refrain. By the 13th century, mutating, baptism became a popular genre in French and Italian professional poetry (especially troubadours and trouvères). Classical French B. 14≈15 centuries. ≈ plotless lyrical poem of the canonical form: three stanzas with through rhymes (ababbcbc), “premise” (addressing the person to whom B. is dedicated), refrain (repeating last line of each stanza and “premise”). Sample ≈ B. “On women of bygone times” by F. Villon. In medieval England, B. is a folk story song of dramatic content with a chorus, usually on a historical, legendary, or fantastic theme (for example, the B. cycle about Robin Hood). B., close to English and Scottish folk B., became a favorite genre of poetry of sentimentalism, romanticism and neo-romanticism (R. Burns, S. Coleridge, W. Blake, R. Kipling - in England, G. Burger, F. Schiller, G. Heine - in Germany). V. A. Zhukovsky was the initiator of B. in Russian poetry. B. wrote A. S. Pushkin (“The Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “The Bridegroom”), M. Yu. Lermontov (“The Airship”), A. K. Tolstoy (mainly on themes of Russian history). The Soviet poets N. S. Tikhonov and E. G. Bagritsky are the authors of biographies with heroic themes. In Soviet poetry, plot-driven lyrical-epic “tonality” (A. A. Surkov, P. G. Tychina, E. Charents, and others) predominates.

The heyday of vocal poetry (mainly for solo singing with piano accompaniment) is associated with the revival of poetry in professional poetry in the second half of the 18th century. B. is represented in the romantic music of Germany and Austria - in the works of F. Schubert, R. Schumann, J. Brahms, G. Wolf. The first Russian ballads are associated with romantic poetry—Svetlana by A. A. Pleshcheev to words by V. A. Zhukovsky, ballads by A. N. Verstovsky, A. E. Varlamov, and M. I. Glinka. The genre of baroque received a peculiar form from A. P. Borodin, M. P. Mussorgsky, and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

Instrumental bass is a genre characteristic of romantic music. Epic narrative is combined in it with dramatic development, lyrical excitement ≈ with picturesque picturesqueness (B. for pianoforte by F. Liszt, J. Brahms, E. Grieg, and especially F. Chopin, B. and A. Vieuxtan's polonaise for violin and piano, B. for piano and orchestra G. Fauré). Various types of vocal and instrumental beats are found in modern music. Bings to the words of B. Brecht created by H. Eisler contributed to the development of vocal beats. In Soviet music, the genre of balladry often receives a heroic, heroic-epic interpretation (“The Ballad of the Vityaz” from Yu. Heroic Ballad” for piano and orchestra by A. Babajanyan).

Lit .: Zhirmunsky V. M., English folk ballad, "Northern Notes", 1916, ╧ 10; Russian ballad. Intro. article by N. P. Andreev, Moscow-Leningrad, 1936; Pankratova V., Ballada, M., 1963; Entwistie J., European balladry, Oxf., 1939; Northcote S., The ballad in music, Oxf., 1944.

V. A. Nikonov, E. M. Tsareva.

Wikipedia

Ballad (disambiguation)

• Ballad - (1) medieval poetic and text-musical form; (2) the lyrical epic genre of Anglo-Scottish folk poetry of the 14th-16th centuries; (3) poetic and musical genre of the Romantic era
• Rock ballad - a type of song in rock music

Works of art:

• Ballad of Aotru and Itrun
• The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
• Automatic ballad

• Hussar ballad
• Ballad of a Soldier
• Alpine ballad
• Ballad of old weapons

• Ballad of Violins

Examples of the use of the word ballad in the literature.

In the program: traditional music of Western Europe and Russia - dances, ballads, ritual songs, instrumental tunes Hall of the Central House of Scientists Program: Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Diniku, Saint-Saens, Grieg, Alyabyev, Liszt Subscription 85 The great romantic piano.

It was then that she began to wonder if the new harpist had complained to him that the children had ballads and legends?

The new harpist brought songs I'd never even heard - like that ballad that he sang on the day of his arrival.

Maybe it's for the best - the new harpist endlessly pestered Janus with questions: take him out and put it down, who taught the obligatory songs to the children and ballads!

Scott dwells on the debates that folklorists had in his day, such as those about authorship. ballads, about the social position of the ancient minstrel, about the advantages and disadvantages of various sources ballads nogo creativity, etc.

ancient ballad too often suffers from insignificance of thought and poverty of expression, also because the apparent simplicity of the ballad stanza gave rise to a strong temptation to write carelessly and trivially.

There are well-done battle sequences, there are folk scenes full of humor, there is a wonderfully idyllic picture of Lluellen being hunted in the forest, inspired by ballads about Robin Hood.

ancient ballad The enemy launched a furious attack on the bridge a little before Morton and Burghley joined the rebels defending it.

In rock and roll Elvis and ballads We discovered more meaning with the Beatles than in all those articles by Lenin that I summarized in the 9th and 10th grades of the school and in the 3rd year of the institute.

Since Mikl, an excellent versifier, also knew how to give his poems a great melody - here bards much more famous could envy him - then ballads these were very successful for him, if, of course, we consider them as clearly modern works.

After the events in Dinas Brenin, Killar and Amesbury, my fame increased enormously, sung in ballads and songs.

The music of this ballads composed by Henry's friend, Paul Dresser, brother of the novelist Theodore Dreiser.

Everything here was hazy and permeated with an atmosphere of love, like a German ballad, - it was a true refuge for the passion of one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, with rare flowers fragrant in jardinieres.

Now she began to sing an excerpt from the old ballads: My dream is dreary, Lord Archibald, My bed is like ice, My unfaithful lover, Tomorrow is your turn!

Gibor, shaking his head negatively, tears a blackened silver almond from his neck, in two measures. ballads about King Rodrigo, the melodic medallion opens, the red powder is poured onto the back of the hand, the tongue of intoxicating length picks up the poison in one sapphic ikt, and the simitarra in the pupils of Magoma thins, flashes, burns out - it is not needed.

The word "ballad" (balada, also in a diminutive form - baladeta) in relation to poetry is first recorded in manuscripts with Provencal poems of the 13th century. Judging by the few (six) surviving examples, the word was used descriptively (as a synonym for "dance song"). There was no special formal structure and fixed semantics of the genre in the Provencal "ballad".

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the word "ballad" (fr. balade, ballade) was called a poetic (so-called solid) and text-musical form, a genre of courtly lyric poetry and music. It originated in France at the end of the 13th century; among the first copyright examples of the genre include the monophonic ballads of Jeannot de Lecurel (c.

The poetic form includes three stanzas with identical rhymes (ababbcc for a seven-line, ababccdd for an eight-line, ababbccdcd for a ten-line stanza; other rhyming schemes are possible) with a refrain at the end of the stanza. The musical form breaks each stanza of the text into three parts: AAB. Sometimes the second half of the stanza is repeated (AABB). Classical examples of the genre of the XIV century. left Guillaume de Machaux - the author of 200 ballads, of which 42 he set to music (the most famous is "De toutes flours" - "Of all the flowers"). Mashho's polyphonic ballads are professional compositions of the love-lyrical genre, without any elements of dance (despite the name). His polytext ballads are especially difficult to perceive (several texts are sung at the same time), written by analogy with polytext motets. One of Masho's ballads is written in two text (such ballads are called "double"), two - on three text ("triple" ballads). In the future, polytext ballads are practically not found.

In the classical ballad, the number of verses in a stanza varied from 7 to 10. In the 15th century, we see an inclination towards a square stanza: eight eight-syllables or ten ten-syllables. From the end of the 14th century (for example, in the ballads of Eustache Deschamps), it usually ends with a semi-stanza - “premise”, which, as a rule, begins with the word “Prince” (or “Princesse”), which goes back to the etiquette title “Puy” of poetic competitions of the 13th century, but it can take on a different meaning depending on the circumstances. In the "double ballad" the same scheme unfolds in six stanzas. Due to its relative length, a ballad can include any descriptive and didactic amplifications.

Famous Author poetic ballads (poems are not meant to be sung) - Christina of Pisa, author of The Book of a Hundred Ballads (Le Livre des cent ballades, c. 1399); according to another version, around the year this book was compiled by poets from the entourage of Louis of Orleans, based on the first collection of Seneschal Jean d "E. The last major author of the (poetic) medieval ballad, who significantly expanded the subject of this form, was Francois Villon.

Ballad in modern times

England and Scotland

Of the non-historical ballads, the ballad is remarkable about children in the forest, given by the guardian uncle to two robbers in order for them to kill them. The literary treatment of the ballads was given by Robert Burns. He masterfully reproduced old Scottish traditions. The exemplary work of Burns in this kind is recognized as "The Song of the Beggars" (translated into Russian). Walter Scott, Southey, Campbell and some other first-rate English writers also used the poetic form of the ballad. Walter Scott owns the ballad "Castle Smalholm", translated by V. A. Zhukovsky, which captivated Russian lovers of romanticism. In general, the word ballad acquired a peculiar meaning in England, and began to be applied mainly to a special kind of lyric-epic poems that were collected by Percy in Reliques of ancient English poetry () and had a great influence on the development of not only English, but also German poetry. literature. Therefore, the word "ballad" in Germany is used in the same sense, that is, as a designation of poems written in the nature of old English and Scottish folk songs.

France

Russia

The ballad appeared in Russian literature at the beginning of the 19th century, when the obsolete traditions of the old pseudoclassicism began to fall rapidly under the influence of German romantic poetry. The first Russian ballad, and moreover - original both in content and in form - "Thunderstorm" by G.P. Kamenev (-). But the most important representative of this kind of poetry in Russian literature was V. A. Zhukovsky (-), to whom contemporaries gave the nickname "balladnik" (Batyushkov), and who himself jokingly called himself "the parent in Rus' of German romanticism and the poetic uncle of German devils and witches and English." His first ballad "Lyudmila" () was remade from Burger ("Lenore"). She made a strong impression on her contemporaries. “There was a time,” says Belinsky, “when this ballad gave us some kind of sweet-terrible pleasure, and the more it horrified us, the more passionately we read it. It seemed short to us during it, despite its 252 verses. Zhukovsky translated the best ballads of Schiller, Goethe, Uhland, Zedlitz, Southey, Moore, W. Scott. His original ballad "Svetlana" () was recognized as his best work, so critics and philologists of that time called him "Svetlana's singer."

The ballad as a plot poetic work is represented by such examples as Pushkin's "Song of the Prophetic Oleg". He also owns the ballads "Demons" and "The Drowned Man", Lermontov - "Airship" (from Seidlitz); Polonsky - “The Sun and the Moon”, “Forest”, etc. We find entire sections of ballads in the poems of Count A. K. Tolstoy (mainly on ancient Russian topics) and A. A. Fet.

Ballad as a musical genre

Since the 18th century, songs have spread to the texts of poetic ballads. Samples of the song ballad were left by prominent representatives of Austro-German romanticism: K. Loewe, F. Schubert (his ballad The Forest King is especially famous), R. Schumann, G. Wolf. In Russia, the song ballad appeared in the 19th century under the influence of the German one. Such, for example, are the ballads by A. N. Verstovsky "Black Shawl" (to poems by A. S. Pushkin), "The Poor Singer" and "Night Review" (to poems by V. A. Zhukovsky), "The Sea"