The Ballade as a genre originated from literature; epic long poems with many lines and verses. Frederick Chopin was the first to create a musical genre with this title. My Ballade is a much shorter than his long and challenging version. It’s more similar in scope to those of Brahms and Grieg.

It also took a long time for me to settle on a title. At first it was called A Sad Song but then I played it for a friend who said it didn’t sound very sad. Then it was A Song Without Words as it reminded me a bit of Mendelssohn. Finally, I rested on calling it a Ballade because of its heroic character especially in the middle section.

If you were to give it a title what would it be?