passacaglia

In music a passacaglia (French: passacaille, Spanish: pasacalle, German: passacalia; Italian: passacaglia, passacaglio, passagallo, passacagli, passacaglie) is a musical form and the corresponding court dance. Its name derives from the Spanish pasar (to walk) and calle (street), deriving either from street performance or musicians taking a few steps during one. Typically, the Spanish pasa-calle is a solemn, stately accompaniment to the parading of floats in religious processions.

Origins and features

Originally a slow Spanish and later Italian dance in 3/4 time, the passacaglia denotes a musical work in 3/4 based on a ground bass pattern (that is, a melodic fragment (usually 4, 6 or 8 bars long, rarely an odd number such as 3, 5 or 7) which repeats unchangingly throughout the duration of the piece, while the upper lines get varied freely, over this bass pattern that serves as a harmonic anchor). The passacaglia is very closely related to the chaconne, except that the chaconne more often than not is in a major key, while the passacaglias are usually in a minor key (there are numerous exceptions). The chaconne is usually based on a harmonic sequence rather than a ground bass pattern. But there are passacaglias titled as chaconnes and vice versa in many original baroque sources, leading to some confusion.

In modern music, the term passacaglia is often used to denote a piece that doesn't necessarily conform to the baroque ideal of the form (and not even necessarily in 3/4 time), but which has a more or less fixed bass pattern (ground bass) or chord progression, sometimes both, that is repeated consecutively throughout most or all of the piece. Sometimes it departs entirely from the form, but retains its essentially grave character (cf. passacaglias by Shostakovich)

Composers

One of the best known examples of a passacaglia in western classical music is the one in C minor for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 582. Other examples are the organ passacaglias by Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Kaspar Kerll, Georg Muffat, Gottlieb Muffat, Johann Kuhnau, Max Reger.

The first page of the autograph manuscript of the Passacaglia by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 582

The French clavecinists, especially Louis Couperin and his nephew François Couperin, le grand, were noted for their use of the passecaille form, even though they tended to deviate from the passacaglia form to a considerable degree, often assuming a form of recurring episodes in rondo.

The fourth movement of Luigi Boccherini's Quintettino #6, Op. 30, (also known as "Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid") is titled "Passacalle". Director Peter Weir included the piece at the end of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

There are lute passacaglias by Alessandro Piccinini, G. H. Kapsberger, Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Esaias Reussner, count Logy, Robert de Visée, Jacob Bittner, Philipp Franz Lesage De Richee, Gleitsmann, Dufaut, Gallot, Denis Gautier, Ennemod Gautier, Roman Turovsky-Savchuk and Maxym Zvonaryov, a passacaglia for bandura by Julian Kytasty, passacaglias for baroque guitar by Paulo Galvão, Santiago de Murcia, Antonio de Santa Cruz, Francisco Guerau, Gaspar Sanz, Marcello Vitale et al.

There are such ensemble examples of the form as the Passacaille "Les plaisirs ont choisi" from Lully's opera Armide (1686) and Dido's lament, "When I am Laid in Earth", in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and others, such as aria "Piango, gemo, sospiro" by Antonio Vivaldi, or "Usurpator tiranno" and "Stabat Mater" by Giovanni Felice Sances, et al.

Another important passacaglia is one in g-minor for unaccompanied violin and one in c-minor for violin and continuo by Heinrich Ignaz Biber.

A 19th century example is the c-minor Passacaglia for organ by Felix Mendelssohn, or the finale of Josef Rheinberger's 8th organ sonata. Perhaps the most frequently heard passacaglia, however, is the finale of Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 4 (although Brahms did not call it a passacaglia, it follows the rules of one and the repeated figure is based on one found in Bach's Cantata No. 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich). The Norwegian Johan Halvorsen also composed a passacaglia that is based on a Handel theme and written for a duet of violin and viola, considered among the most popular pieces for both instruments due to its simplicity and depth. A number of symphonies and concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich notably make use of the Passacaglia form.

A harmonic pattern known as La Folia is related to Passacaglia. Many Baroque composers wrote variations on La Folia, also known as La Follia and La folie d'Espagne (the folly of Spain) a chord progression actually based on a Portuguese folk dance. Composers from Jean-Baptiste Lully and Arcangelo Corelli to Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vangelis (in his film score to the motion picture 1492: Conquest of Paradise) have used the La Folia theme, although not always composing a passacaglia based on it.

Modern examples

The passacaglia proved an enduring form throughout the 20th century onward. Other examples of uses of the passacaglia form include the following.

• Passacaglia Op. 1 by Anton Webern (1908)
• "Nacht" in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (1912)
• The 10th variation of Ernő Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Theme, op. 25 (1914)
• The third movement of Maurice Ravel's Trio in A minor (1914)
• Aaron Copland's Passacaglia (1922)
• Leopold Godowsky's Passacaglia (44 variations, cadenza and fugue on the opening of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony) (1927)
• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum contains a Passacaglia (1929-30
• The fourth movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 (1943)
• "Dirge", from the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, by Benjamin Britten (1943)
• Passacaglia, a short twelve-tone work for solo piano by Walter Piston (1943)
• Passacaglia for large orchestra by Frank Martin (1944)
• The third movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio (1944)
• The Passacaglia interlude from the opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten (1945), often performed separately
• The final movement of Britten's String Quartet No. 2 (1945, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of Purcell)
• The third movement of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto (1947-1948).
• Mystery of Time, Passacaglia for large orchestra by Miloslav Kabeláč (1953-1957)
• Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia on DSCH (1960-62)
• Benjamin Britten's Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar (1963) concludes with a passacaglia followed by the Dowland theme
• Passacaglia And Fugue by Don Ellis, from Don Ellis Live at Monterey (Original release 1966, CD rerelease 1998)
• An American Requiem by John Kenneth Graham (commemorating the dead and wounded of the Iraq War, 2007), uses a passacaglia throughout its setting of the traditional Dies Irae.
• The central episode of the final movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 (1971)
• "Lento e ritmico" from "Oration", the cello concerto (1930) by Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• The last movement of Britten's String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
• The last movement of the Piano Concerto by Witold Lutosławski (1987-88)
• Passacaglia ungherese (for solo harpsichord) and the fourth mouvement of the Violin Concerto by György Ligeti (1992)
• Sloth: Passacaglia/A Bud And A Slice, from Joe Jackson, Heaven and Hell (1997)
• Wear Your Seatbelt by Cliff Martinez, from the movie Solaris (2002)
• Passacaglia (and variations such as The Shape of Things to Come and Allegro) and A Promise to Return by Bear McCreary, from the Sci-fi Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica (2005)
• Passacalles by Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles
• The first movement of "First Suite in E♭ Major for Military Band" by Gustav Holst (1909) for military band; entitled "Chaconne," it is actually a passacaglia.^[1]
• "Murder Passacaglia" by Scott Glasgow from the film score to Chasing Ghosts (2005) with expanded variations in all the "murder scenes" throughout the film
• "Passacaglia" by Jóhann Jóhannsson from the CD single The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black, a 2006 release on the 4AD label.[[1]]

1. ^ Udell, Budd (1982). "Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst's First Suite in E♭ Major for Military Band." Music Educators Journal, 69 (4):28 (JSTOR subscription access)

• Prado Almeida, José Antonio Rezende(Brazil) - Concerto Fribourgeois (1985), Second Moviment
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. 5 in D: Movement 4, Passacaglia (1938-43).
• Act I, The fourth scene of Wozzeck by Alban Berg (1925)
• The Death of Falstaff, from Henry V (1944 film), by William Walton, also featured in Ken Burns' The War (documentary).

External links

• La Folia
• Passacaglias and Chaconnes for Lute
• Passacaglias and Chaconnes for Baroque Guitar
• Analysis of Passacaglia and fugue by J.-S. Bach

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