This bundle includes:
1. A digital PDF of the Teacher Resource Guide from the Teaching Music textbook
2. An mp3 recording of the work

Ballad for Band, composed in 1946, was commissioned by the Goldman Band and was premiered by that ensemble on June 21 of the same year.

Based on the style and elements of the Negro spiritual, Ballad does not contain any direct quotes from existing spiritual melodies. It is, instead, an original expression of what Gould called “the Negro folklore idiom” that intrigued him as a com- poser: “The spirituals have always been the essence, in many ways, of our musical art, our musical spirit.

The spiritual is an emotional, rhythmic expression. The spiritual has a universal feeling; it comes from the soul; from the gut.”

The work is approximately eight minutes and ten seconds in length.