Ballade No. 2 (Liszt)

The Ballade (ballad) No. 2 in B minor, S. 171, is a piano composition by Franz Liszt, written in 1853. Liszt plied one of his favorite genres—the programmatic one movement tone poem designed to provide both the variety and unity of a sonata or symphony. He drew his program from Gottfried August Bürger’s once widely read Gothic horror ballad Lenore. Punctuated with the grisly refrain "The dead ride quickly! Are you afraid," the poem tells of Lenore’s wild hundred-mile midnight ride with the zombie of her recently slain soldier-fiancé, toward a cemetery where their nuptials are solemnized amid a riotous gathering of skeletons and specters. The ballad is based largely on two themes: a broad opening melody underpinned by menacing rumbles and a luminous ensuing chordal meditation. These themes are repeated a half-step lower; then march-like triplet-rhythms unleash a flood of virtuosity. Eventually, Liszt transforms the opening melody into a rocking major-key cantabile and reiterates this with ever-more grandiose exultation. The luminous chords provide a contemplative close.^[1]

References

External links

• Ballade No.2: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Franz Liszt
Operas	Don Sanche Sardanapale (unfinished)
Symphonic poems	Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne Tasso Les préludes Orpheus Prometheus Mazeppa Festklänge Héroïde funèbre Hungaria Hamlet Hunnenschlacht Die Ideale
Other orchestral works	Faust Symphony Dante Symphony Mephisto Waltzes
Works for piano and orchestra	Hungarian Fantasy Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 Totentanz
Original solo piano works	Transcendental Études Grandes études de Paganini Ab Irato Three Concert Études Two Concert Études Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli Années de pèlerinage Dante Sonata Feuille d'album Ballade No. 1 Ballade No. 2 Consolations Harmonies poétiques et religieuses Deux légendes Sonata in B minor Sarabande and Chaconne Weihnachtsbaum Dem Andenken Petőfis Nuages gris La lugubre gondola Valse-Impromptu Mephisto Waltzes Bagatelle sans tonalité Mephisto Polka Grand galop chromatique Csárdás Hungarian Rhapsodies Glanes de Woronince Rondeau fantastique Rhapsodie espagnole Liebesträume
Opera paraphrases for piano	Réminiscences de Don Juan Fantasy on Themes from Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni
Family	Adam Liszt (father) Cosima Wagner (daughter)
Related articles	Life Musical works Later works Treatments of the works of other composers Franz Liszt Academy of Music International Franz Liszt Piano Competition Lisztomania
Book:Franz Liszt List of compositions by Franz Liszt