Ballad (piano music)
In piano music, the ballad is a genre of the 19th century that, like the character piece or the song without words, is not formally defined. Occasionally, the composers are inspired by poems (e.g. Chopin and Brahms ) or moods. The forerunners of the piano ballad include the rhapsodies by the two Czech composers Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek and Jan Václav Voříšek . The ballad was the first to find its way into music through Frédéric Chopin , who established it as an independent musical genre based on the model of the literary ballad .
Ballads in piano music
Brahms
- Four ballads op.10 (1856)
- Ballads and Romances for two voices with piano op.75 (1878)
- Ballade for piano op.118, no.3 (1893)
Chopin
- Ballad No. 1 in G minor (op. 23, 1831): inspired by the story of the Lithuanian hero Conrad Wallenrodt
- Ballad No. 2 in F major (op. 38, 1839): inspired by the poem “Der Swietz” by Adam Mickiewicz
- Ballad No. 3 in A flat major (op. 47, 1841): inspired by Adam Mickiewicz's “Undine”
- Ballad No. 4 in F minor (op. 52, 1843): inspired by the Lithuanian saga of the Budry brothers
Liszt
- 1st ballad in D flat major (1848)
- 2nd ballad in B minor (1853)
Debussy
- Ballad (Slave) in F major (1890)