Ballade No.6 (Rzewski, Frederic)

Composition Year	1980
Genre Categories	Ballades; For harpsichord; Scores featuring the harpsichord; [3 more...]For 1 player; For piano; Scores featuring the piano

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1 Performances
- 1.1 Recordings
2 Sheet Music
- 2.1 Scores
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Performances [show]

Sheet Music

Scores

Complete Score
*#115691 - 7.98MB, 9 pp. - 0/10 2 4 6 8 10 (0) - !N/!N/!N - 2373×⇩ - Elaine Fine

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PDF scanned by Frederic Rzewski
Elaine Fine (2011/8/29)

Publisher. Info.	Brussels: Sound Pool Music (BMI) (autograph manuscript)
Copyright	Performance Restricted Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 1.0 [tag/del] © COPYRIGHT NOTICE. THIS FILE IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT LAW. However, the lawful copyright owner has generously released the file for distribution at IMSLP under one of the Creative Commons licenses or the IMSLP Performance Restricted License, which allow for the free distribution (with proper attribution) of the file with various levels of restriction with respect to the creation of derivative works, commercial usage, or public performances.
Misc. Notes	These file(s) are part of the Werner Icking Music Collection.
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General Information

Work Title	Ballade No.6
Alternative. Title	The Housewife's Lament
Composer	Rzewski, Frederic
Internal Reference NumberInternal Ref. No.	IFR 96
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp.	1980
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period	Modern
Piece Style	Modern
Instrumentation	Harpsichord or Piano

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Composer's comments:

The Housewife's Lament was written in 1980 at the request of the harpsichordist Judith Norell. It is a set of variations on a 19th-century song of the same name with words from the diary of Mrs. Sarah Price:

Life is a toil and love is a trouble,

Beauty will fade and riches will flee;

Pleasures they dwindle and prices they double,

And nothing is as I would wish it to be.

Although the piece was intended for the harpsichord, I find that it works just well when played on the piano. Perhaps the ideal instrument would be an old upright piano of the kind that could be found in middle-class homes across America in the early part of the century.