Narrative in the Ballades of Fryderyk Chopin

Due to the influence of the poetry of Mickiewicz, Chopin's ballades are rich in their narrative of story telling. Much previous research asserts that harmonic structures and tonal process comprise the ballades' narrative. However, the style of Chopin's narrative via story telling may be evoked through the character of rhythm, which reflects the analogy of narrative strategies in Chopin's music and Mickiewicz's literary works. At the core of this idea, derived from the approaches in Expressionism, is that rhythm is an essential element in rendering music as a logical and non-discursive language which expresses feelings and emotions. This notion leads the author to dig into the roots of the narrative form of the ballade, a form with the added dimension of literary relationships. This inquiry attempts to demonstrate that the usage of particular rhythms defines the narrative qualities in Chopin's ballades. Finally, the author, from the perspective of the narrative qualities within his ballades and through the relationships to rhythmic features, provides insights to pianists' performance practices.