Editing Ballad (section)

==Origins==
A ballad  is a form of verse, often a [[narrative]] set to [[music]]. Ballads derive from the medieval [[Music of France|French]] ''chanson balladée'' or ''[[Ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]]'', which were originally "dancing songs" ([[Latin|L]]: ''ballare'', to dance), yet becoming "stylized forms of solo song" before being adopted in England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215605|title=Harvard Dictionary Of Music|first=Willi|last=Apel|date=December 20, 1944|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> As a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from [[Scandinavia]]n and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as ''[[Beowulf]]''.<ref name="Houseman1952">J. E. Housman, ''British Popular Ballads'' (1952, London: Ayer Publishing, 1969), p. 15.</ref> Musically they were influenced by the Minnelieder of the [[Minnesinger|Minnesang]] tradition.<ref>A. Jacobs, ''A Short History of Western Music'' (Penguin 1972, 1976), p. 20.</ref> The earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in [[England]] is "[[Judas (ballad)|Judas]]" in a 13th-century [[manuscript]].<ref name="N. Bold, 1979 p. 5">A. N. Bold, ''The Ballad'' (Routledge, 1979), p. 5.</ref>