The word ballad derives from the late Latin
and Italian ballare, ‘to dance’. Fundamentally a ballad is a song that tells a
story and originally was a musical accompaniment to a dance. We can distinguish
certain basic characteristics common to large numbers of ballads: (a) the
beginning is often abrupt; (b) the language is simple: (c) the story is told
through dialogue and action; (d) the theme is often tragic (though there are a
number of comic ballads); (e) there is often a refrain (q.v). To these features
we may add: a ballad usually deals with a single episode; the events leading to
the crisis are related swiftly; there is minimal detail of surroundings; there
is a strong dramatic element; there is considerable intensity and immediacy in
the narration; the narrator is impersonal; stock, well-tried epithets are used
in the oral tradition of kennings and Homeric epithets ; there is
frequently incremental repetition ; the single line of action and the
speed of the story preclude much attempt at delineation of character; imagery
is sparse and simple.
We
may distinguish further between
two basic kinds of ballad: the folk or traditional ballad and the
literary
ballad. The former is anomymous and is transmitted from singer to singer
by
word of mouth. It thus belongs to oral tradition . In this manner
ballads
have been passed down from generation to generation over centuries.
Inevitably,
this has led to many variations of one particular story. The folk ballad
has
tended to flourish among illiterate or semi-literate people in rural
environments, and is still a living tradition in northern Greece, in
parts of the Central Balkans (e.g. Bosinia-Hercegovina, Montenegro
and Serbia) and in Sicily.
