The ballad, combining literary and musical elements, was a popular, wide-ranging genre since medieval times. From the Romantic era, the ballade began to include epic narrative styles, as well as elements related to the Volksgeist; concurrent with the development of instruments, the ballade was reborn as a brilliant genre for piano concert pieces in Chopin’s hands. Chopin disliked giving his compositions programmatic titles; he settled on the name of his new genre through the ballads of Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), known for connecting the Polish Volksgeist with music. Also, by creating a previously non-existent genre, Chopin was able to liberate himself from the traditional features of the Classical sonata allegro form, and he is considered to have fully maximized his creativity and originality inside this new genre.
The four ballades are extremely original in their formal and tonal aspects. There are no formal or tonal links between any of the ballades except for being composed in 6 beats in a measure.
<Ballade No. 1> Op. 23 in g minor is indicative of Chopin’s efforts to modify the sonata allegro form according to his own structural senses. Chopin’s method of modifying the sonata form can be seen in his piano sonatas, where the second theme is appears first in the recapitulation, and the key of the second theme does not return to the tonic key, forming a symmetry. These features are present in the broader structure of the Ballade No. 1 as well; the presence of an introduction in the Neapolitan key, A♭ major, the connection of the Neapolitan key to the key of the 2nd theme, E♭major and the mid-development climax in A major within a piece in a g minor tonic. These are all new elements not present in the Classical sonata form. The A major section in the middle of the development section forms the tonal center of the entire piece, creating a unique structure.
<Ballade No. 2> Op. 38 in F major/a minor was dedicated to Robert Schumann (1810-1856). It was composed in an A-B-A-B form, with extreme contrast between the two alternating parts. The influence of Schumann’s music on this work is apparent especially in shifting the two extreme mood as Schumann expressed his musical and emotional thoughts by using his two extremely opposite, divided egos, Florestan and Eusebius. Also, according to Schumann’s review of this work, Chopin’s second ballade was inspired by the poems of Adam Mickiewicz, and in particular, supposed to related to the ballad, “Świtezianka” about the undine of the lake, Świtez. Of the four ballades, it is the only one with a literary influence; the theme and tonal structures are related to the content of the poem. Chopin’s use of an alternating, contrasting parts and the use of a literary connection in his second ballade are thought to be influenced by Schumann’s works.
Chopin escaped the sonata form with <Ballade No. 3> Op. 47 in A♭ major and created a perfect arch form; despite including enharmonic transposition, the work has the simplest and clearest structure in A-B-C-B-A form and tonal structure of the four ballades.
<Ballade No. 4> Op. 52 in f minor appears to be based on the sonata form, but except its short development section, it is in a large scale binary form. Also, the harmonic axis of the first theme sections, which consist of F-A♭-C as the tonic notes triad, does not overlap with the axis of the second theme sections, with tonic notes G♭-B♭-D♭triad. This kind of structure with two tonal axes is innovative and it is in contrast to the typical sonata form, where the two themes are formed in related keys and creates a unified, organic work. Chopin’s process for developing themes is similar to that of Sibelius’s compositional technique of “teleological genesis,” foreshadowing the structural concepts used later in the early 20th century. This paper analyses the innovative structures of Chopin’s ballades from the formal and tonal aspects, and highlights the potential for the ballade to be cemented as a new instrumental form evolved from its Classical roots.