Signe Lund-Skabo was a Norwegian composer whose music reflects late Romantic Scandinavian traditions. This Ballade displays a characteristic blend of introspective harmony and folk-influenced melodic contours.
Students must develop a deep tone production to support the expressive, wide-spanning melodic phrases throughout the piece.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade is rated Henle level 5 of 9 — late intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 6–7. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 7.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 5 — meaning you can already play level 4–5 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 Ballade lasts about 5 minutes.
Ballade 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 Ballade by Signe Lund-Skabo, Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor by Enrique Granados, Barcarolle by Anton Stepanovich Arensky — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.