This piece by Kees Schoonenbeek is a contemporary work that prioritizes accessible, tonal melodic writing. Its simplicity allows for a focus on intimate phrasing and harmonic shading.
Achieving a warm, consistent tone quality across different registers is essential for this piece.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballad is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 4 — meaning you can already play level 3–4 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Ballad lasts about 3 minutes.
Ballad is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Bal Masqué by Kees Schoonenbeek, 1st Sonatina by Kees Schoonenbeek, 'Sweelinck!' by Kees Schoonenbeek — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.