Ballads

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Ballads
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Simple Language

• Written for common people, originally illiterate
  listeners
• Usually sung to musical accompaniment

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Narrative

• Tells a story
• Records history
• Third person
• Omniscient
• Objective

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Ballad Stanza

• Quatrain
• Rhyme scheme
• abcb
• abab

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Refrain

• Repeated segment that divides the story into
  sections
• Incremental repetition a small part of the
  repeated segment changes as the story progresses

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Dialog

• Communication between characters in the story
• Speaker indicated by change in voice during
  performance

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Modern Ballad

• Any song that tells a story
• Literary form that mimics conventions of
  traditional ballad
• A slow song in rock or jazz music

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Assignment

• Write your own ballad.
• Choose a story that you want to tell
• Divide the story into segments
• Select an aspect (theme, event, catch phrase)
  that you can use as your refrain

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Grading Criteria

• 5 stanzas and a refrain
• Rhyme scheme (abab, abcb)
• Rhythm
• Content
• Portfolio scoring rubric will be used to assess
  these features.