ABSTRACT

This study proposes to consider some aspects of the Fourth Ballade (Op. 52, 1842), in particular its form and motivic associations, with some references to the First and Third Ballades. 1 The formal designs of the Ballades are perhaps controversial inasmuch as different commentators read them differently, and music that is controversial and problematical is often particularly intriguing just on that account. For example, Schenker’s reading of the g-minor Ballade, in Der freie Satz (Fig. 153; given here as Example 7.1), shows a ternary form. But in hybrid fashion, the Ballade also resembles a sonata movement.