The term “ballad” has several connotations. A ballad, for example, is a popular song that frequently tells a story. These ballads are distinguished by a limited number of characters, dramatic plots, and dialogue as well as action.
There are several ballad folk songs about Robin Hood, including “John Henry,” “The Ballad of the Tea Party,” “Edward,” “Lord Randall,” “Barbara Allen,” “Clementine,” and “The Fox.” It’s worth noting that the ballad about the Boston Tea Party is based on true events, and some now believe that the ballad of John Henry is as well. On the other hand, “Edward,” “Lord Randall,” and “Barbara Allen” are all tragic fictional romances. The tragicomic comedy “Clementine” features a heroine who wears herring boxes as sandals. And “The Fox” and at least some of the Robin Hood ballads are deliberately comic, with “The Fox” featuring talking animals and a woman known as “Old Mother Flipper Flopper,” “Old Mother Giggle-Gaggle,” or “Old Mother Pitter Patter,” for example.
In the context of opera, ballad has a specialized meaning. Ballads were used to tell the story’s backstory. Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, or The Flying Dutchman in English, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Mikhai Ivanovich Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmilla, with a libretto by Valerian Fyodorovich Shirkov, and Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, or The Merry Wives of Windsor, with a libretto by Salo
A jazz ballad, on the other hand, is a slow, sentimental, and intimate love song. It’s usually in 4/4 time and has a 32-bar form. “It Might As Well Be Spring,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Some Other Spring,” “The Man I Love,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” “Misty,” and “’Round Midnight” are examples of classic jazz ballads. The term “ballad” is frequently used in popular music to refer to Beatles songs such as “Yesterday” and “Norwegian Wood.”