ballade

American  

[buh-lahd, ba-, ba-lad] / bəˈlɑd, bæ-, baˈlad /

noun

ballades plural

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.

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ballade British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• ballades
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ballade

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

Example Sentences

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

From Salon • Feb. 28, 2022

A 14th-century ballade by Guillaume de Machaut set up György Ligeti’s hazy, briery “Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg,” from 1982.

From Washington Post • Jan. 22, 2020

They began with three works by the 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut: a rondeau, a ballade and a motet, arranged by Ari Streisfeld, one of the JACK’s violinists.

From New York Times • Mar. 4, 2010

The ballade consists of three stanzas, and an envoy, or final half-stanza, which is sometimes omitted.

From A Short History of French Literature by Saintsbury, George

The ballade is a highly artificial form of verse, French in origin, consisting, as a rule, of three eight-line stanzas and a four-line envoi, with only three rhymes in all twenty-eight lines.

From The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces by Kilmer, Joyce