Page "Ballad" Paragraph 26

Now the most commonly understood meaning of the term ballad, sentimental ballads, sometimes called " tear-jerkers " or " drawing-room ballads " owing to their popularity with the middle classes, had their origins in the early ‘ Tin Pan Alley ’ music industry of the later 19th century.

They were generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published separately or as part of an opera ( descendants perhaps of broadside ballads, but with printed music, and usually newly composed.

Such songs include " Little Rosewood Casket " ( 1870 ), " After the Ball " ( 1892 ) and " Danny Boy ".

By the Victorian era, ballad had come to mean any sentimental popular song, especially so-called " royalty ballads ", which publishers would pay popular singers to perform in Britain and the United States in " ballad concerts.

" Some of Stephen Foster's songs exemplify this genre.

By the 1920s, composers of Tin Pan Alley and Broadway used ballad to signify a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form ( see below ).

Jazz musicians sometimes broaden the term still further to embrace all slow-tempo pieces.