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Chaconne, revised by August Berchelmann and Bartosz Chramiec According to the Dictionary of Music and Musicians entry on the chaconne, written by Ebenezer Prout in 1879, the chaconne is a musical form that originates in a Spanish dance, the chacona. It is usually in triple time, of “moderately slow movement,” and belongs to the “class of variations” The source states that the variations are written upon a “ground bass.” This source also distinguishes the chaconne from the passacaglia in that the former’s ground bass begins on the first beat of the measure, while in the latter, the “ground bass” begins on the third, and that the latter is slower than the former. From Lully to Rameau, a danced chaconne was the standard finale in French opera, as in Marin Marais’s 1706 opera Alcyone and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 1735 Les Indes Galantes. In Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Passacaglia from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, the ground bass indeed begins on the third beat of the measure and is of the class of variations, as for most of the passacaglia the same ground bass in the pedal is continuously repeated. Bach’s most famous chaconne is the fifth movement of his Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, for unaccompanied violin. This chaconne begins on the second beat of the measure. Bach titles it with the Italian spelling of chaconne: Ciaccona. In characteristic chaconne fashion, this piece has a repeating ground bass/chord progression that persists with only minor changes until the end, with one notable passage in D major. Some chaconnes do fit Prout’s definition of the chaconne beginning on the first beat of the measure. Two examples are Dieterich Buxtehude’s Chaconne in E minor, BuxWV 160, and Henry Purcell’s Chacony in G minor, Z. 730. In both pieces, the ground bass is varied at certain points. Since there are chaconnes and passacaglie that begin on the first, second, and third beat of the measure, the two forms can only be defined as ’belonging to the class of variations,’ in triple meter with a repeating ground bass. It is redundant to distinguish the one from the other in most composers, as at least two of the most famous Baroque composers, Purcell and Bach, seem not to distinguish between them. Original version from 2023: The chaconne is a musical form which typically includes a short, repeating bass line (Ground Bass) or harmonic progression that offers an outline for variation, ornamentation, figuration, and melodic invention; the form is also typically in triple meter and in a major key. It is similar to the passacaglia and was popular in the Baroque era. The chaconne originaly emerged from Spanish culture around 1600 as a fast and energetic dance that was typically danced with castanets by a couple or by a woman alone. It eventually spread to Italy, where it was considered disreputable due to its Spanish origin. A subdued version of the chaconne eventually gained popularity in the French court in the seventeenth century, spreading its popularity to elite courts and in the general public. French composers often designated chaconne pieces in rondeau form (with refrain recurring before, after, and between contrasting passages/couplets). By the early eighteenth century, the chaconne had evolved into a slow triple meter instrumental form. One well-known example of the chaconne is J. S. Bach’s final movement of the Partita in D minor for Unaccompanied Violin. There have been some recent claims, however, that the movement is actually more in the French theatrical dance form of the passacaille, with Italian and German stylistic influences. (source?) The chaconne form declined after the Baroque era, but saw a significant revival during the twentieth century. Chaconne versus Passacaglia There has been debate on the distinction between the two forms: Some nineteenth- and twentieth-century theorists considered the difference to be that the chaconne was a set of variations on a harmonic progression, while the passacaglia was a set of variations on a melodic bass pattern—(some theorists also considered these distinctions to be switched). Historically, there was not a clear distinction between the two forms in terms of musical construction. Both may begin on the second beat of the bar, have a theme of four measures, and typically are in triple meter. Bach’s famous Passacaglia from his Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, however, begins on the third beat of the bar. Frescobaldi, most likely the one of the first composers to make a distinction between the two, typically set the chaconne in a major key with two compound triple-beat groups per variation, giving it more momentum and forward motion than the passacaglia. |