Article: Ballads Without Words: Chopin and the Tradition of the Instrumental Ballade.

In Ballads without Words James Parakilas has made a heroic attempt to define the ballade as an instrumental genre. There is no doubt about its origin: it was invented by Frederic Chopin, whose first specimen was published in 1836. But since the composer did not explain what he meant by this title, critics and scholars have been free to speculate. Evidently Chopin intended some reference to the literary ballad, but no one knows exactly what the relationship is supposed to be.

Many have thought that each of Chopin's four Ballades for piano was intended to illustrate a particular ballad, perhaps one by his compatriot Adam Mickiewicz. Parakilas dismisses that ...

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