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a poem consisting commonly of three stanzas having an identical rhyme scheme, followed by an envoy, and having the same last line for each of the stanzas and the envoy.
Music. a composition in free style and romantic mood, often for solo piano or for orchestra.
Historical Examples

The ballade consists of three stanzas, and an envoy, or final half-stanza, which is sometimes omitted.
A Short History of French Literature George Saintsbury

All that was possible, however, to be made of the ballade was made of it by Mr. Borwick.
Musical Criticisms Arthur Johnstone

Schumann’s opinion of this ballade is, that as a work of art it stands below the first, yet is not less fantastic and geistreich.
Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician Frederick Niecks

Others, looking at the ceiling, sigh to the viol some German ballade.
The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Vol. II (of 2) Charles de Coster

The ballade, which originally ended in F major, was altered to its present conclusion by an afterthought.
Studies in Modern Music, Second Series W. H. Hadow

Alluding to the wheel of Fortune; see the ballade on Fortune, l. 46, and note.
Chaucer’s Works, Volume 2 (of 7) Geoffrey Chaucer

With the exception of the sonnet, the ballade is the noblest of the artificial forms of verse cultivated in English literature.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Various

Chesterton is so fond of the ballade that I must quote one specimen complete.
Six Major Prophets Edwin Emery Slosson

It is undoubtedly easier to write a sonnet if one is familiar with Wordsworth or to write a ballade if one has read Dobson.
Rhymes and Meters Horatio Winslow

It agrees with the present ballade; which settles the question.
Chaucer’s Works, Volume 1 (of 7) — Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems Geoffrey Chaucer

noun
(prosody) a verse form consisting of three stanzas and an envoy, all ending with the same line. The first three stanzas commonly have eight or ten lines each and the same rhyme scheme
(music) an instrumental composition, esp for piano, based on or intended to evoke a narrative
n.

late 14c., an earlier borrowing of ballad (q.v.) with a specific metrical sense. Technically, a poem consisting of one or more triplets of seven- (later eight-) lined stanzas, each ending with the same line as the refrain, usually with an envoy. Popularized 19c. as a type of musical composition by Frédéric Chopin. Ballade royal is recorded from late 15c.