A graduate in piano and harp from the Paris Conservatoire, Carlos Salzédo moved to New York in 1909, serving initially as principal harpist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under Toscanini. He was active in the promotion of new music, established the harp department at the Curtis Institute and taught at the Juilliard School. As a composer and performer he exercised a strong influence on harp performance, exploring the possibilities of the instrument and its varied timbres. His Ballade, a standard virtuoso element in modern harp repertoire, is one of a set of three pieces published in 1913, and, as a relatively early work, reflects a harmonic vocabulary familiar from the works of his French contemporaries. It was dedicated to Hasselmans, his teacher.