Grove Music Online

Chaconne (Fr., also chacony; It. ciaccona, ciacona; Sp.

chacona)
Alexander Silbiger
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.05354
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
updated, 3 September 2014

Before 1800, a dance, often performed at a quite brisk tempo, that generally used
variation techniques, though not necessarily ground-bass variation; in 19th- and
20th-century music, a set of ground-bass or ostinato variations, usually of a severe
character. Most chaconnes are in triple metre, with occasional exceptions. The term is
sometimes used interchangeably with Passacaglia (the terms ‘chaconne’ and
‘passacaglia’ are used throughout this article regardless of the national tradition under
discussion). Many composers drew a distinction between the chaconne and the
passacaglia, the nature of which depended on local tradition and to some extent on
individual preference. The only common denominator among the chaconnes and
passacaglias is that they are built up of an arbitrary number of comparatively brief
units, usually of two, four, eight, or 16 bars, each terminating with a cadence that leads
without a break into the next unit. This almost limitless extendibility allows for the
creation of a momentum sustainable over an appreciable length of time, a quality that
contributes much to the special character of the genres as well as to their usefulness in
certain contexts (for example, as the concluding number in an instrumental suite or
stage work). Large-scale articulation by means of temporary shifts of mode or key is
not uncommon in either early or more recent works.

1. Beginnings in Spain and Italy.

The chaconne appears to have originated in Spanish popular culture during the last
years of the 16th century, most likely in the New World. No examples are extant from
this period, but references by Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and other writers
indicate that the chacona was a dance-song associated with servants, slaves, and
Amerindians. It was often condemned for its suggestive movements and mocking
texts, which spared not even the clergy, and was said to have been invented by the
devil. Its high spirits were expressed in the refrains that punctuated its often lengthy
texts, usually beginning with some variant of ‘Vida, vida, vida bona!/Vida, vámonos á
Chacona!’ (which can be freely translated as: ‘Let’s live the good life; let’s go to
Chacona!’). Few could reportedly resist the call to join the dance, regardless of their
station in life. The chaconne was traditionally accompanied by guitars, tambourines,
and castanets; among the less far-fetched of numerous proposed etymologies is a
derivation from ‘chac’, the sound of the castanets. The theory that it was named after
an as yet unidenti ed place (perhaps near Tampico, Mexico, referred to in some texts)
is considered more plausible, however.
Chaconne chacony ciaccona, ciacona chacona 1. Beginnings in Spain and Italy. 2. Italy a er 1615. 4. France. 5.
Germany.: Ex.1 Chaconne bass patterns all transposed to C and reduced to equivalent note values

During the early 1600s the chaconne rapidly became established as Spain’s most
popular dance, overshadowing its older (but equally ‘immoral’) rival, the zarabanda,
with which it was often associated. For the earliest musical notations of chaconnes,
however, one must turn to Italy, to the alfabeto (chord) tablatures of the newly popular
ve-course or ‘Spanish’ guitar, beginning with Montesardo’s Nuova inventione
d’intavolatura (1606). The notations take the form of chord-strumming formulae,
presumably based on the dance, which appear along with other formulae of Spanish
origin such as the folía and zarabanda. They are usually presented in several keys and
were no doubt intended as pedagogical examples and exercises. Although these
tablatures do not provide tunes for the dances, they o er at least some indication of
their harmonies and rhythms (Montesardo’s rhythmic notation is, however, not
without ambiguity). The most common progression for the chaconne was I–V–vi–V,
with a metric pattern of four groups of three beats (ex.1b); in later variants the nal
dominant was often extended by a standard cadential formula. Assuming that these
formulae re ect to some extent the original Spanish chaconnes, one could reconstruct
a hypothetical chacona song along the lines of ex.2a. Both in Spain and in Italy,
especially in Naples, chaconnes were often incorporated into theatrical presentations
and commedia dell’arte routines, which sometimes resulted in their being banned from
the stage. The association with commedia dell’arte characters, particularly Harlequin,
became long-lasting and widespread throughout Europe.

2. Italy a er 1615.
With a few isolated exceptions, the fully notated chaconnes that survive from the rst
half of the 17th century are almost exclusively from Italy. In addition to the chord-
strumming guitar examples there are others calling for plucked playing or a
combination of the two techniques, as well as chaconnes scored for di erent musical
forces. Among the earliest are those by Domenico Visconti (1616) for violin (as a
ritornello to an aria); by Falconieri (1616) for two voices with guitar continuo (alfabeto
tablature); by Piccinini (1623) for chitarrone; and by Frescobaldi (1627) for
harpsichord. Whereas the rst alfabeto tablatures generally present only a single
statement of a formula terminating in a cadence, the later examples, whether for
guitar or other instruments, are almost always in the form of a chain of units
incorporating variations of some sort. The near universality of these variation chains
during the early years of the ciaccona (they are even found in a unique north European
chacona published in 1618 by Nicolas Vallet) suggests that the improvisation of strings
of variations on chaconne formulae was a common practice among Spanish guitar
players, which by the second decade of the century had become su ciently well known
to be emulated elsewhere.

In Italian chaconnes, successive variations usually follow each other without a break,
sometimes even overlapping beginnings and ends, a technique that had a long history
in both Italy and Spain. The term ‘variation’ should be understood very loosely,
however, as in chaconnes there is generally no underlying melodic theme tying the
variations together but at most a harmonic-rhythmic or bass formula, which tends to
be treated rather freely or may even be abandoned altogether. In ensemble chaconnes,
the continuo bass, by de ning the chord formula, often takes the form of an ostinato,
but Italian solo chaconnes (and passacaglias for solo guitar, lute, or keyboard) are
almost never strict ground-bass pieces. The characteristic chaconne formulae, echoing
the original battute progressions, commence with I–V–VI, and then return to V, either
6
directly or by way of intermediary harmonies such as IV–V or I –IV–V (ex.1c). The
associated rhythmic formula often starts after the downbeat and tends to hover
between two bars in compound triple metre (e.g. 2 × 3/2) and four bars in simple triple
metre (e.g. 4 × 3/4); the Ze ro torna formula popularized by Monteverdi’s setting
derives much of its charm from the con ict between a surface 3/4 metre with the
background 3/2 (ex.1d). But as central to the Italian chaconne as any of these formal
properties were its cheerful, often jocular spirit and its strong dance feeling, re ected,
for instance, in the several joyful texts, both secular and sacred, set by Monteverdi to
his chaconne bass (Ossi, 1988, p.251). Monteverdi also quoted this bass as a topical
allusion in L’incoronazione di Poppea (1642; Act 1 scene vi); further evidence of the
chaconne’s connotations is provided by Salvator Rosa’s comment in his satire La
Musica that everyone was scandalized by ‘the singing of the Miserere on the Ciaccona’.

Frescobaldi appears to have been the rst to draw the chaconne and the passacaglia
together as a pair. When in 1627 he published the earliest known keyboard chaconne,
the Partite sopra ciaccona, he followed it with another variation set, the Partite sopra
passacagli, the rst known appearance of the passacaglia as an independent musical
genre (as opposed to an improvisation formula; see Passacaglia, §2). From this time
onwards the histories of the chaconne and the passacaglia remained closely
intertwined. Frescobaldi maintained his interest in the two genres, which were similar
in many ways and yet to him clearly di erent, and in the ensuing decade he re ned his
conception of the pair, which reached its culmination in the chaconnes and
passacaglias added to the 1637 edition of his Primo libro di toccate (ex.1c and ex.2a).
Although the chaconne shared with the passacaglia features such as the linking of
variations, cadential articulation, and the use of triple metre, Frescobaldi’s chaconnes
also show some distinctions (not necessarily in every instance), such as a more
exuberant, less restrained character, faster tempo, major rather than minor key, more
disjunct melodic motion, and fewer dissonant suspensions. In the metric patterns of
his later chaconnes he favoured two compound triple-beat groups, whereas his
passacaglias were usually based on four simple triple-beat groups. Having two rather
than four strong beats per variation tends to give the chaconne stronger forward
impetus; however, accent shifts in either genre often produced ambiguity in their
patterns. Further ambiguity arose when, as was not uncommon, the chaconne was in
the minor or the passacaglia in the major, or when the chaconne bass did not move
immediately to a root-position dominant (I–V–VI …) but to its rst inversion,
6
resulting in the bass pattern that descends by step (I–V –VI …) associated with the
passacaglia. The similarities, di erences, and ambiguities between the genres are
explored to the fullest in Frescobaldi’s extraordinary Cento partite sopra passacaglie
(1637), with its alternating sections marked ‘ passacaglie’ and ‘ ciaccona’, and
sometimes a gradual, subtle metamorphosis from one into the other (see Silbiger,
1996).

Some of these distinctions between the two genres remained in the works of later
composers in Italy and elsewhere, particularly when a chaconne and a passacaglia
appear side by side or in the same collection; however, when one or the other appears
by itself, the distinctive features may be less evident or altogether absent. Italian
composers who published chaconne-passacaglia pairs di erentiated along these lines
include Piccinini (1639), Falconieri (1650), Bernardo Storace (1664), G.B. Vitali (1682;
not the well-known ‘Chaconne by Vitali’, which is not by Vitali and not called
‘chaconne’ in its source), and Mazzella (1689). Some composers also followed in
Frescobaldi’s footsteps by introducing shifts in key and tempo, including, for example,
Corelli in his one-movement Sonata op.2 no.12 (1685). This work, surely one of the
peaks of Italian chaconne production, is also notable for incorporating ingenious
contrapuntal development of its bass formula (ex.1f).

In vocal settings, Italian chaconnes were sometimes interrupted by recitatives (e.g.

Frescobaldi’s Deh, vien da me pastorella, 1630, and Monteverdi’s Ze ro torna, 1632).
Sections that resemble a chaconne without being identi ed as such are found in
operas, cantatas, and sacred works. However, the present-day tendency to identify any
ostinato aria with the chaconne or passacaglia does not appear to have historical
precedence unless the piece also shows the characteristic dance rhythms and other
genre markings. By the beginning of the 18th century the chaconne was rapidly losing
ground in Italy, but it continued to ourish in France, Germany, and elsewhere for
some time.

3. Spain a er 1630.

In Spain the chaconne’s popularity began to decline by the 1630s, but it maintained a
presence as a popular dance and a folkdance. According to one report it was still danced
in Portugal in the 19th-century during Corpus Christi processions. Only a small
number of notated examples survive in Spanish guitar, harp, and keyboard tablatures
from the later 17th century (for example by Sanz, 1674; Ruiz de Ribayaz, 1677; Martín y
Coll, 1708); the few that do survive suggest that the chaconne continued to be a subject
for instrumental improvisation. (For the busier and artistically more signi cant
passacaglia tradition that persisted in Spain throughout the 17th century and beyond,
see Passacaglia, §3.)

4. France.

In France the Hispanic-Italian chaconne, like the passacaglia, was transformed during
the mid-17th century into a distinctive native genre that in turn became a model for
emulation elsewhere. Before this, however, the genre had already had some impact as
an exotic Spanish import. In 1623 the Spanish expatriate Luis de Briçeño published in
Paris a guitar method that included in chord tablature brief chaconnes and
passacaglias similar to the early Italian examples. A ballet presented in 1625 at the
royal court included an ‘Entrée des chaconistes espagnols’, danced to the sound of
guitars. During the 1640s the promotion of Italian music and musicians by Cardinal
Mazarin brought wider familiarity with the two genres in their newer incarnations.
Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, performed in Paris in 1647 to great acclaim, contains a dramatically
positioned chaconne, ‘A l’imperio d’Amore’, in its second act. Francesco Corbetta, who
settled in Paris about 1648 and became guitar teacher to the future Louis XIV, was
perhaps the greatest Italian guitar virtuoso of his time, and the composer of numerous
chaconnes and passacaglias.

By the late 1650s the French chaconne tradition was rmly in place, already showing
many of the characteristics that would mark the genre during the later 17th century
and the 18th. Many elements were borrowed from the Italian tradition, but di erences
in both a ect and design are evident at the outset. The playful, volatile Italian
chaconne became in France a more controlled, stately dance, suggestive of pomp and
circumstance; whereas the Italian pieces often proceed capriciously, in the vein of a
spontaneous improvisation, the French ones exhibit a well-planned, orderly structure.
The repetition of units, often with alternating half and full cadences, and the
recurrence of earlier units, sometimes with variations superimposed, became
important structural techniques. Rondeau schemes were common in the instrumental
chaconnes (although not in the operatic ones), along with variation schemes and
combinations of the two. Typically the refrains were of four- or eight-bar phrases,
usually repeated, and ended on strong cadences; the couplets could modulate to related
keys or provide contrast by other means.

The French chaconne, like the passacaglia, was cultivated both in chamber music,
especially by guitarists, lutenists, and keyboard players, and on the musical stage.
Among the earliest surviving examples from before 1661 are those for harpsichord by
Louis Couperin. His chaconnes are built on rondeau forms; the refrains are marked by a
distinctive stop-and-go rhythm reinforced by colourful, richly textured chords; the
couplets often bring thinner, more soloistic textures and faster- owing rhythmic
activity.

Lully was without doubt the primary architect of the theatrical chaconne and its much
less common passacaglia counterpart. In his tragédies lyriques chaconnes assume a
central place in the form of extended, lavish production numbers celebrating a hero’s
triumph or apotheosis; in some of his last works (such as Roland, 1685, and Armide,
1686) they support and provide continuity for an entire scene. Several include chains of
well over 100 units, which may include vocal and instrumental segments, sections in
the relative minor, units without bass instruments or for solo wind, and other forms of
contrast and variation. Following Lully, the grand, festive chaconne became
established as a set piece in the French tragédie lyrique, with notable examples
appearing in Charpentier’s Médée (1693), Marais’ Alcyone (1706), and Rameau’s
Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) and Castor et Pollux (1737).

In France the chaconne and passacaglia served mostly as stage dances rather than as
ballroom dances, although a dividing-line between the two functions cannot always be
clearly drawn. Surviving choreographies for dances by Lully (all dating from after his
death) show those for chaconnes and passacaglias to be quite similar, even if in
passacaglias the details of gesture may have been more deliberate. Existing side by side
with the noble theatre pieces, a lighter type of chaconne kept alive the dance’s Spanish
roots and its commedia dell’arte associations, both on the stage and during
entertainments at masked balls. Such dances were often on Spanish themes and
danced with castanets (in fact, it seems castanets were used when dancing any type of
chaconne), or the dancers represented Harlequin characters (Harris-Warrick, 1986;
Hilton, 1986). Lully’s ballet for Le bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) contains a ‘Chaconne
des Scaramouches, Trivelins et Arlequins’, and early 18th-century dance manuals still
provided Harlequin choreographies for the chaconne ( g.1).
Harlequin dancing the ‘cicona’: engraving from Gregorio Lambranzi’s ‘Neue und curieuse theatrialische
Tantz-Schul’ (Nuremberg, 1716)

In France, as in Italy, the distinction between chaconne and passacaglia is most evident
when the two appear in the same context. According to theorists such as Brossard
(1703) and Rousseau (1767), the chaconne was ordinarily in the major (a ‘rule’ often
violated), the passacaglia in the minor; furthermore, chaconnes were performed at
brisker tempos. Several 18th-century reports of precise tempo measurements indicate
crotchet = c120–160 for chaconnes and c60–105 for passacaglias; the slower chaconne
tempo range is probably more suitable for later pieces with frequent semiquaver
subdivisions (such as those of Rameau) and the faster range more appropriate for the
earlier type (such as Lully’s) with mostly quaver subdivisions (Miehling, 1993). Louis
Couperin’s association of rondeau forms with chaconnes and ground-bass variations
with passacaglias is observed occasionally in the keyboard works of other composers
(e.g. D’Anglebert’s Pièces de clavecin, 1689) but never became a general rule, and
versions of the characteristic bass formulae are sometimes encountered, but also
without consistency.
Chaconne chacony ciaccona, ciacona chacona 1. Beginnings in Spain and Italy. 2. Italy a er 1615. 4. France. 5.
Germany.: Ex.1 Chaconne bass patterns all transposed to C and reduced to equivalent note values

The works of François Couperin include a variety of chaconne and passacaglia types
that show the composer’s awareness of their ancient traditions; among them are a
‘Chaconne ou Passacaille’ (1726; ex.1g) and a ‘Passacaille ou Chaconne’ (1728), both of
which play with the opposing qualities of the two genres, somewhat in the manner of
Frescobaldi’s Cento partite. Couperin even wrote a chaconne in duple metre, something
he considered remarkable enough to mention in his score. In addition to chaconnes
and passacaglias in the grand French manner (often marked ‘noblement’), Couperin
wrote two chaconnes of the lighter type, designated ‘chaconne leger’ (1722 and 1724);
both are notated in 3/8.

After 1740 the chaconne fell largely out of fashion in instrumental solo and chamber
music, but (to a much greater extent than the passacaglia) maintained a place on the
musical stage throughout the nal decades of the century, particularly in serious
musical presentations at the Paris Opéra and elsewhere (less often in comedies).
Chaconnes were still included, for example, in most of Gluck’s Parisian productions, as
well as in J.C. Bach’s Amadis de Gaule (1779), Mozart’s Idomeneo (1781), Méhul’s Le
jugement de Paris (1793) and Cherubini’s Anacréon (1803). These late examples are
rarely cast in ostinato-variation form (Burney in 1789 considered the ground bass a
‘Gothic’ practice) and bear little resemblance to the old Lullian chaconnes, but they
continued the tradition, being extended, triple-time dance numbers usually positioned
at the conclusion of a divertissement. Whether the 19th-century dance step the pas de
chacone preserved any elements of the earlier chaconne has not been determined.

5. Germany.

Chaconne chacony ciaccona, ciacona chacona 1. Beginnings in Spain and Italy. 2. Italy a er 1615. 4. France. 5.
Germany.: Ex.1 Chaconne bass patterns all transposed to C and reduced to equivalent note values

The earlier German chaconnes (usually spelled ‘ ciaccona’ or ciacona’, even as late as
J.S. Bach) were closely modelled on foreign works, notably the closing section of
Schütz’s Es steh Gott auf (1647), which by the composer’s own admission was based on
Monteverdi’s Ze ro torna, but with a modulating ostinato pattern. Schütz’s work may
in turn have inspired the impressive chaconne that concludes his pupil Matthias
Weckmann’s Weine nicht (1663), in which the pattern is transformed several times.
Distinct German forms of the chaconne developed only in the later years of the
century, most strikingly in solo organ music. The German organists, drawing on
traditions of cantus- rmus improvisation and ground-bass divisions, created a series
of majestic ostinato compositions, shaped by increasingly brilliant gurations. A
passacaglia and chaconne pair from well before 1675 by J.C. Kerll (who had studied in
Rome) still used traditional ground-bass formulae, if treated rather loosely (ex.1e and
ex.2b; in the sources the chaconne is notated with three semibreves per bar, but the
passacaglia with three breves, presumably to emphasize the slower tempo); and forms
of both formulae also appear together in Poglietti’s Compendium (

A-KR L.146, 1676), the only known example of the speci c basses being cited in an
early treatise ( g.2). However, later composers such as Buxtehude and Pachelbel
introduced bass formulae of their own devising, which were treated during at least the
rst part of the composition as rigorous ostinatos; they assume a thematic signi cance
not present in the traditional formulae, as various techniques borrowed from chorale
improvisation were brought to bear on them. The busy passage-work and contrapuntal
density largely obliterated any dance feeling (except, some might hold, on a cosmic
plane), and links with the genres’ origins became increasingly tenuous.

Alessandro Poglietti’s chaconne and passacaglia formulae from his ‘Compendium’, 1676 (A-KR L.146)
Chaconne chacony ciaccona, ciacona chacona 1. Beginnings in Spain and Italy. 2. Italy a er 1615. 4. France. 5.
Germany.: Ex.1 Chaconne bass patterns all transposed to C and reduced to equivalent note values

Chaconnes written during the same period for instrumental ensemble (for example by
Biber, Georg Mu at, and J.C.F. Fischer) followed French models more closely or
combined the French and Germanic approaches, as did those conceived primarily for
harpsichord (e.g. by Fischer, Georg Böhm, and Fux). The hybrid type was pushed to its
limits by J.S. Bach in his Chaconne in D minor from the fourth Partita for
unaccompanied violin (ex.1h), a work in which several international chaconne and
passacaglia traditions (including the virtuoso solo divisions of composers such as Biber
and Marais) may be traced, and which in turn spawned its own tradition of adaptation
(e.g. by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Busoni) and emulation (e.g. by Reger,
Bartók, and Walton).

6. England.
Although during the last few decades of the 17th century the chaconne also gained
considerable popularity in England, it is di cult to identify uniquely English forms.
Italian and especially French examples continue to be followed, even if as a rule the
results were unmistakably English. There was a special fondness for ground-bass
variations – not surprising in view of the age-old English predilection for this
technique. Pieces called ‘passacaglia’ are much rarer, but some compositions entitled
‘ground’ resemble those called either chaconne or passacaglia on the Continent.

Among the nest chaconnes produced by any 17th-century composer are those of
Purcell. King Arthur (1691) includes a grand instrumental chaconne in the ‘First
Musick’ (used earlier in the 1687 ode Sound the trumpet), as well as an extended vocal
passacaglia in the Lullian manner in Act 3. The ‘Chaconne: two in one upon a Ground’
in Dioclesian (1690), a canon for two recorders on a descending ostinato, is a true tour
de force; the concluding number in the same work, ‘Triumph, victorious love’, is a
chaconne in all but name and includes passages curiously reminiscent of Monteverdi’s
Ze ro torna. Some of Purcell’s chaconnes for instrumental ensemble, notably the
Sonata in Four Parts no.6 (as in Corelli’s op.2 no.12, the chaconne forms the entire
sonata) and the marvellous Chacony (Z730), well deserve their frequent performances.

7. The chaconne and passacaglia a er 1800.

When 19th- and 20th-century composers returned to writing chaconnes and
passacaglias, they did not take as their models the most recent examples from the late-
owering French operatic tradition, nor the once paradigmatic works of Frescobaldi or
Lully; they turned rather to a handful of ‘rediscovered’ pieces by the German masters,
especially Bach’s Passacaglia for organ and his Chaconne for unaccompanied violin,
and perhaps also the passacaglia from Handel’s Suite no.7 in G minor. While these
impressive works are certainly deserving of their canonic status, they are atypical of
the earlier mainstream genre traditions (Handel’s passacaglia was in fact in duple
metre). From Bach’s passacaglia they took what now became the de ning feature: the
ostinato bass. The theme-and-variation idea, often incidental to earlier chaconnes and
passacaglias (if present at all), became central to the revived genres. As with Bach, the
ostinato theme is usually stated at the outset in bare form and in a low register. The
association with Bach (and therefore the past) and with the organ also contributed to a
mood of gravity: most post-1800 examples call for a slowish tempo. Some writers
attempted to de ne a distinction between the chaconne and the passacaglia, based
primarily on the examples by Bach, but no consensus was ever reached and for the
most part the terms continued to be used interchangeably.

Already during the earlier 19th century several leading composers had found
themselves inspired by the chained ostinato-variation idea, without necessarily calling
the resulting works ‘chaconne’ or ‘passacaglia’. Notable examples are Beethoven’s 32
Variations in C minor (WOO80), Liszt’s praeludium on ‘Weinen, Klagen, Zorgen,
Zagen’ (based on a chromatically descending ostinato from Bach’s Cantata no.12) and,
perhaps the most famous latter-day example, the nal movement of Brahms’s Fourth
Symphony, modelled on ostinato-variations by several earlier composers, in particular
Buxtehude’s Chaconne in E minor and the nal chorus of Bach’s Cantata no.150
(Knapp, 1989).

Works speci cally called ‘passacaglia’ or (not nearly as often) ‘chaconne’ became more
common in the 20th century, both as independent compositions and as movements in
larger works. Almost all are of the cantus- rmus ostinato type, although treated with
varying degrees of exibility (as in the early German models, the rst group of
statements of the ground are usually strict, but later ones may be varied). In view of the
antecedents by Bach it is hardly surprising that dense contrapuntal settings for
keyboard (mainly organ, but also piano) and virtuoso settings for solo strings (violin as
well as cello) are especially popular, but there are also works for chamber ensemble
and for large orchestra, and even a few operatic scenes. Certain composers such as
Reger, Hindemith, and Britten showed a special fondness for the genres, incorporating
them into several works. Other major gures who contributed to the genres include:
Ravel (Piano Trio), Schoenberg (Pierrot Lunaire), Berg (Orchestral Songs, Wozzeck),
Webern, Bartók, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Copland, Wolpe, and Ligeti (Hungarian
Rock (Chaconne) and Passacaglia ungherese, both for harpsichord) – a list that could be
much expanded, especially if one includes 19th- and 20th-century works that are
chaconnes and passacaglias in all but name.
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H. Schneider: ‘Chaconne und Passacaille bei Lully’, Studi corelliani IV: Fusignano 1986,
319–34

B. Bang Mather: Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: a Handbook for Performance
(Bloomington, IN, 1987), esp. 226–9, 280–81

L.F. Tagliavini: ‘Varia frescobaldiana’, L’organo, Vol.21 (1987), 83–128, esp. 123–7

M. Ossi: ‘ L’armonia raddoppiata: on Claudio Monteverdi’s Zefiro torna, Heinrich Schütz’s

Es steh Gott auf, and Other Early Seventeenth-Century Ciaccone’, Studi musicali, Vol.17
(1988), 225–54

R. Knapp: ‘The Finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony: the Tale of the Subject’,

19CM, Vol.8 (1989), 3–17

 L. Schnapper: ‘La mise en évidence d’un modèle dans les formes de la chacone’, Analyse
musicale, no.22 (1991), 79–86

H. Pimmer: Die südeutsch-österreichische Chaconne und Passacaglia 1670–1770 (Munich,

1992)

K. Miehling: Das Tempo in der Musik von Baroque und Vorklassik (Wilhelmshaven, 1993),
esp. 289–92

P. Holman: ‘Consort Music’, The Purcell Companion, ed. M. Burden (London, 1994), 254–
98, esp. 260–65

S. Leopold: Al modo d’Orfeo: Dichtung und Musik im italienischen Sologesang des frühen
17. Jahrhunderts, AnMc, no.29 (1995), esp. i, 260–85

R. Legrand: ‘Chaconnes et passacailles dansées dans l’opéra français: des airs de

mouvement’, Le mouvement en musique à l’époque baroque, ed. H. Lacombe (Metz,
1996), 157–70

A. Silbiger: ‘Passacaglia and Ciaccona: Genre Pairing and Ambiguity from Frescobaldi to
Couperin’, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, Vol.2/1 (1996), <http://www.sscm-
jscm.org/v2/no1/silbiger.html <http://www.sscm-jscm.org/v2/no1/silbiger.html>>

W. Hilton: Dance and Music of Court and Theater (Stuyvesant, NY, 1997)

M. Zenck: ‘Reinterpreting Bach in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, The

Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. J. Butt (Cambridge, 1997), 226–50

G.V. Burgess: ‘The Chaconne and the Representation of Sovereign Power in Lully’s
Amadis (1684) and Charpentier’s Mede’e (1693)’, Dance and Music in French Baroque
Theatre: Sources and Interpretations, ed. S McCleave (London, 1998), 80–104

G.V. Burgess: Ritual in the ‘tragédie en musique’ from Lully’s ‘Cadmus et Hermione’ (1673)
to Rameau’s ‘Zoroastre’ (1749) (diss., Cornell U., 1998)

L. Schnapper: L’ostinato: procédé musicale universel (Paris, 1998)

J. Schwartz: ‘The passacaille in Lully’s Armide: Phrase Structure in the Choreography

and the Music’,

EMc, Vol.26 (1998), 300–20

A. Silbiger: ‘Bach and the Chaconne’,

JM, Vol.17 (1999), 358–85

R.A. Pruiksma: ‘Music, Sex and Ethnicity: Signification in Lully’s Theatrical Chaconnes’,
Gender, Sexuality and Early Music, ed. T.M. Norgerding (New York and London, 2002),
227–48

A. Silbiger: ‘On Frescobaldi’s Recreation of the Ciaccona and the Passacaglia’, The
Keyboard in Baroque Europe, ed. C. Hogwood (Cambridge, 2003), 3–18

R. Legrand: ‘Chaconnes et passacailles de Charpentier’, Marc-Antoine Charpentier: un

musicien retrouve’, ed. C. Cessac (Liege, 2005), 297–306

S. McClary: ‘The Social History of a Groove: Chacona, Ciaccona, Chaconne, and the
Chaconne’, Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music (Los Angeles, 2007), 193–
214

L. Rosow: ‘The Descending Minor Tetrachord in France: an Emblem Explained’, New

Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, ed. S. Thompson (Farnham, 2010), 63–87

A. Ross: ‘Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues,’ Listen to This (New York, 2010), 22–54
For further bibliography see Passacaglia and Ostinato.

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/
omo-9781561592630-e-0000005354?rskey=cuAPDO&result=3
26/04/2019
 See also
Variations, §6(ii): The later 17th century

External references
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Cento partite sopra passacaglie. Girolamo Frescobaldi, composer. Pierre Hantai,
harpsichord. FRESCOBALDI, G.A.: Harpsichord Music (Partitas and Toccatas) (Naive:
1996). Audio. <http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?
cid=E8839 <http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=E8839>>

"Chaconne des Scaramouches, Trivelins et Arlequins," from Le bourgeois gentilhomme.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer. Le Concert Des Nations; Jordi Savall, conductor. Jean-
Baptiste Lully: L'Orchestre Du Roi Soleil (Alia Vox: 1999). Audio.
<http://muco.alexanderstreet.com/view/1965620 <http://muco.alexanderstreet.com/view/1965620>

Hungarian Rock (Chaconne). György Ligeti, composer. Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord.

Harpsichord Recital: Esfahani, Mahan - BYRD, W. / BACH, J.S. / LIGETI, G. (Wigmore Hall
Live: 2014). Audio. <http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?
cid=WHLive0066 <http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?
cid=WHLive0066>>

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