ballade

[ buh-lahd, ba-; French ba-lad ]

noun

, plural bal·lades [b, uh, -, lahdz, ba-, b, a, -, lad].

1. a poem consisting commonly of three stanzas having an identical rhyme scheme, followed by an envoy, and having the same last line for each of the stanzas and the envoy.
2. Music. a composition in free style and romantic mood, often for solo piano or for orchestra.

ballade

/ bæˈlɑːd; balad /

noun

1. prosody a verse form consisting of three stanzas and an envoy, all ending with the same line. The first three stanzas commonly have eight or ten lines each and the same rhyme scheme
2. music an instrumental composition, esp for piano, based on or intended to evoke a narrative

Word History and Origins

Origin of ballade¹

1485–95; < Middle French, variant of balade ballad

Example Sentences

The ensemble was both larger and more showcased in the evening’s opening work, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Ballade,” from 1898, which had its Philharmonic debut on Thursday.

From New York Times

Even in the most stylistically attuned hands, Liszt’s Ballade No. 2 in B Minor risks coming across as overwrought, and Fujita’s traversals of the keyboard sounded superficial rather than splashy.

From New York Times

He plays Schumann’s “Arabeske” and the Fantasy in C, before a second half of Chopin, including the Ballade No. 4 and the Scherzo No. 1.

From New York Times

He does this while improvising an elaborately complex poem called a ballade.

From Salon

Long Beach Symphony The orchestra, under the baton of music director Eckart Preu, opens its season with a program that includes Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade for Orchestra and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

From Los Angeles Times