THE name ' Ballad' has undergone many changes through the ages. So far as we can now guess, tho original Balletta, bom in Italy, was a song to bo either accompanied by, or interrupted by, dancing. The word. is presumably the same in origin as Ballet.
The making of Ballads was a fashion. able accomplishment for many generations, and Henry VIII is supposed to have been something of a master of the art.
Tho contemptuous uso of the term began as long ago as Queen Elizabeth's reign. There is legislation as old as that with tho object of repressing Ballad singers. At the beginning of last century the same unflattering opinion of tho Ballad was current.
Nowadays the term is very heedlessly used, both about sung and instrumental music. Some of Schubert's finest songs are really Ballads, and the term, ' Choral Ballad,' is quite usual, meaning almost any tale in verse sung by a choir, generally with orchestral accompaniment. There are also Ballads for orchestra and for solo instruments.
As applied, however, to a song of tho present day, the term usually means a work of very slight musical value, almost always a sotting of three verses of somewhat conventional doggerel.