Probably no class of musical compositions ever presented to the world by
any master has been so little understood, and consequently so much
misrepresented as the ballades by Frederic Chopin. Even so standard an
authority as Grove, in his “Dictionary of Music and Musicians,” writes
as follows: “_Ballade_, a name adopted by Chopin for four pieces of
pianoforte music, which have no peculiar form or character of their own,
beyond being written in triple time, and to which the name seems to be
no more applicable than that of sonnet to the pieces which others have
written under that title”—a statement which proves that he had little
information and less interest in regard to the subject.
The French word _ballade_, which Chopin used as title for these
compositions, is derived from the Provencal _ballata_, a dancing song,
which in turn comes from _bellare_, to dance; and our modern English
words ballad, ball, ballet, all descend to us from the same source. In
Italian, _ballata_ meant a dancing piece, in distinction from _sonata_,
a sounding piece, and _cantata_, a singing piece; and the _ballade_ and
_ballata_ originally meant a piece of music to be sung while dancing or
accompanied by dancing. The dance element, however, was early lost, and
ballade in French, like ballad in English, came to mean a short and
popular narrative poem adapted for singing or recitation. The ballad is
a tale in verse. It differs from the epic in being briefer, less
dignified in tone, and in concerning itself with actual practical events
in the lives of individuals, instead of with historic and mythological
subjects, which form the main province of the epic. The true ballad
treats of some knightly exploit, some national episode, or some tale of
love and adventure; and, as we shall see, Chopin, in adopting this title
for instrumental compositions, adhered strictly to its definition and
its literary characteristics and significance.
The Chopin ballades, four in number and ranking among his most
strikingly original and effective contributions to pianoforte music,
introduced an entirely new and distinctly unique musical form, well-nigh
limitless in its possibilities of expression and application, its facile
adaptability to every phase of emotional and descriptive writing. As was
natural, they opened the way for a host of more or less worthy
followers, bold, independent free lances, heedless of the forms and
rules which bind in rank and file the more orderly conservative
compositions; all bearing a strong racial resemblance, but variously
designated by such special clan cognomens as ballade, novelette, legend,
fable, fairy-tale, and the like. They now constitute a complete and
markedly individual school of composition, of which Chopin in his
ballades was the originator, and which is differentiated from all others
by its distinctly declamatory, narrative style.
Chopin used the name ballade in the sense in which it is employed in
modern literature—to designate a short, poetic narrative, a miniature
epic, as distinguished from the lyric, didactic, and dramatic forms of
poetry. He intended the ballade in music to be a counterpart of the
ballad in poetry, and his inventive genius and unerring taste supplied
and perfected a form precisely adapted to the end in view; a form which
is strictly akin neither to the rondo, the sonata allegro, nor the free
fantasia, though having certain points of resemblance to all three,
still less to any of the dance forms. It reminds us more of some of the
larger, more complex song forms, as, for instance, the musical settings
by Schubert and others of the more pretentious German ballads by Goethe,
Berger, and Uhland; but its development is broader and ampler, at once
more extended and more logical, evincing a greater degree of
constructive musicianship.
Chopin’s able biographer, Karasowski, says of the ballades: “Some
regarded them as a variety of the rondo; others, with more accuracy,
called them poetical stories. Indeed, there is about them a narrative
tone (_Märchenton_) which is particularly well rendered by the six-four
and six-eight time, and which makes them differ essentially from the
existing forms.” In view of these facts, patent even to the superficial
student of Chopin’s life and works, it seems very strange that we should
so often hear and even see in print sneering insinuations to the effect
that the composer christened these works ballades for lack of any better
or more appropriate name; that the title has in reality nothing of
significance or distinctness, which is justified either by the form or
the content of the works.
As a matter of fact, all four of these ballades, according to Chopin’s
own statement to Schumann during an interview at Leipsic, are founded
directly upon Polish poems by the greatest poet of that nation, Adam
Mickiewicz, the father of the romantic school in Poland, a contemporary
and personal friend of the composer, a man whose fervent patriotism and
unswerving fidelity to national themes, as well as the warmth,
tenderness, and power of his creative genius, specially endeared him to
the heart of his compatriot and brother artist, the tone-poet Chopin. It
is difficult, not to say impossible, to estimate the stimulating
influence of Mickiewicz and his works upon the creative activity of
Chopin. That the music of the latter has attained world-wide celebrity,
while the poems of the former are scarcely heard of outside of the small
and cultured circle of his own countrymen and women, is due perhaps not
so much to the superiority of the composer’s genius over that of the
poet, as to the more universal intelligibility of his chosen idiom, his
medium of expression, Polish being a language understood by few persons
even of cosmopolitan tendencies, and one which is ill adapted for
translation into non-Slavonic tongues. Certain it is that Chopin himself
was quick to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to his gifted countryman,
and rose to some of his loftiest flights of creative effort when
translating into his own beloved language of tone ideas, experiences,
incidents, and situations which had already been molded and vivified
into artistic life and beauty by the hand of the poet, as in the case of
the four ballades under consideration.
Though the origin of these ballades as musical transcripts of certain
poems by Mickiewicz is indisputable, it has always been a mooted
question, and one fraught with the keenest interest, at least to some of
us, upon what particular poem any given ballade is founded; what special
experience or incident, national, personal, or imaginary, found its
first embodiment in the verses of the Slavic poet, to thrill with its
power and beauty a limited circle of Polish readers, and was later
reincarnated by Chopin, to find a far wider sphere of influence
throughout the musical world; and what may be the peculiar subtle karma
of romantic or dramatic association which this vital art germ has
brought with it in its transmigration from a former existence; in a
word, whence and what is the essential artistic essence of each ballade?
If we could trace it to its fountain head and familiarize ourselves with
the sources of Chopin’s own inspiration, the task of rightly
comprehending and interpreting any one of these compositions would be
vastly facilitated. This no one has hitherto done successfully. Few
among English-speaking musicians are able to read Mickiewicz in the
original Polish; translations of his works are meager, imperfect, and
very difficult to obtain. It is therefore not without a certain glow of
satisfaction that the present writer is able, after diligent, unwearying
inquiry and voluminous reading, covering a period of some fifteen years,
confidently to affirm that he has at last traced back to their
inspirational sources three at least of the four ballades; and he
submits to the reader the results of his research, in the hope that some
degree of the interest and pleasure he has himself derived from this
line of investigation may be shared by others.
Should any question arise with regard to the accuracy of the statements
and conclusions here advanced, I would say that the authority on which
they are based is derived partly from definite historical data,
existing, though widely diffused, in print; partly from direct
traditions gathered from those who enjoyed the personal acquaintance of
the composer; and partly from the carefully considered internal evidence
of the works themselves, when critically compared with the poems to
which they presumably had reference. I will say further that concerning
the fourth ballade, in F minor, I am still as completely in the dark as
any of my readers, and would gratefully welcome any information or
suggestion which might tend to throw the smallest light upon the
subject.