The term "ballade" was used to signify a musical composition for solo piano that tells a story in purely musical terms. However it provides no suggestive story, the listener must create a story and interpret the piece.
If you listen to this music by Chopin carefully, you will notice that its beginning indicates something of great seriousness, as if announcing that something is coming up. Afterwards, the story begins to unfold and the melody takes a waltz-like rhythm. In this part, one can imagine a romantic story at its beginning. Then, tension builds up and a feeling of worry and fright is introduced which gives way to a murmur in order for another beautiful theme to begin, almost like a murmur between two people in their intimate moments. Tension arrives again, this time even more intense to culminate into a feeling of happiness or victory. These alterations continue throughout the piece, as if Chopin is trying to make us imagine of a story which arouses a spectrum of feelings and emotions. It has also been said that this piece has been inspired by the poem "Konrad Wallenrod" by Adam Mickiewicz, which, behind its apparent story of a Lithuanian boy raising against those trying to force christianity, hides an allegorical patriotic message of Polish revolution against the Russians. You can select either version of the story to imagine this music. The title we would suggest: "Life like a roller coaster".