Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 2The Harmonic Language of the Popular Ballad 3Rhythmic Features of the Popular Ballad 4Melodic Design: Descriptive Categories 5The Lyric: Its Qualities and Melodic Roles 6Form: Nomenclature and Templates 7The Large-Scale View: A Primer 8Ballads of Jerome Kern 9Ballads of Irving Berlin 10Ballads of Cole Porter 11Ballads of George Gershwin 12Ballads of Richard Rodgers 13Ballads of Harold Arlen 14Ballads of Richard Whiting, Walter Donaldson, Harry Warren, Jimmy McHugh, Vincent Youmans, Duke Ellington, and Kurt Weill 15Ballads of Hoagy Carmichael, Arthur Schwartz, Vernon Duke, John Green, Burton Lane, and Jimmy Van Heusen 16Ballads of Kay Swift, Bernice Petkere, Ann Ronell, Dana Suesse, and Ruth Lowe 17Concluding Reflections Notes Bibliography Copyright Credits Index

About the Author

Allen Forte is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of many works, including most recently Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis.

Reviews

Co-Winner of the 1997 Wallace Berry Distinguished Book Award, Society for Music Theory "He brings the technique to bear on American popular ballads of the 'Golden Age.'... The book is brilliantly planned and ... elegantly written."--The Times Literary Supplement