Spanish Ballads: History, Origin, and Classification
Old and New Ballads
Ballads: This is the name given to a collection of old ballads of the fifteenth-century romances, which includes the medieval epic tradition (from the ancient epic poems) and some other compounds in the fourteenth century. This is a traditional genre, as these romances are part of the oral tradition of the people, ranging from poems transmitted orally from generation to generation. The compositions are anonymous, and because of their oral transmission, have been rethought over time. The ballad, which copies and distributes oral writing romances, shows the interest that they had awakened in the fifteenth-century poets. Subsequently, learned poets of the Golden Age joined this tradition, attracted by the charm of its musicality and the vividness of their stories. The romances composed by the learned poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Renaissance and Baroque), outstanding among which are Lope de Vega, Góngora, and Quevedo, constitute the new ballads or artistic ballads.
Origin and Characteristics of the Romance
The Romance ties in with the general tradition of the European ballad. Its metric shape and its epic-lyric thematics are closely related to the epics, and some researchers believe it comes from them, before leaving for the caesura monorhythmic verses, regularized in sixteen syllables, old songs (traditional ballads). According to this theory, the most attractive passages of epic poems would have become independent, coming to life themselves. In passing from mouth to mouth, and with the changing tastes of successive epochs, they were conformed to the fantasy of the reciters. Similarly, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, new romances created by *jugglers* in imitation of the traditional (minstrel ballads) would go to enrich the set of existing ones and incorporate themes and motifs of romance and poetic, but in accordance with the new aesthetic in vogue. Therefore, it should be noted as a significant feature of the romances of its vitality and receptivity to suit all types of themes and tastes over time. Both the medieval poem, like that of the appropriate verse, are formed by an indeterminate series of eight-syllable verses with a rhyme assonance in pairs, leaving the odd ones loose. They have narrative elements of epic and romance, along with lyric and dramatic elements. Its dynamic language, highly dramatic and emotional tension, the pace of octosyllable, short and loud, and expressive resources such as syntactic simplicity, the game of parallelism and repetition, antithesis, and enumerations, facilitate their memorization and survival along generations. At present, in many cases, scenes cut from a longer history create an atmosphere of suspense and mystery that surrounds it completely, giving it a large gathering or to condense an intense emotional charge.
Classification of Romance
Following a thematic approach, we distinguish the type of romance: historical, revolving around the exploits of national heroes; border and Moors, who have episodes on the wars between Muslims and Christians during the Reconquista; legendary, closed in the deeds of the European heroes and Carolingian cycles Breton; romantic and lyrical, collecting stories of fiction or embodying an emotion more freely of themes and motifs.
The Castilian Prose in the Fifteenth Century
The importance of humanistic power granted to classical texts and authors ultimately benefited the European Romance languages, for those struggling to match the elegance and Latin in expressive power. The fifteenth-century Castilian language went through a period marked by the imitation of Latin syntax and vocabulary.