passacaglia
/ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/
passacaglia means A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.
passacaglia is pronounced /ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/.
Why “passacaglia” is a great word
A musical composition, often of a serious character, in triple meter and built upon a recurring bass theme or harmonic pattern. From Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar ("to pass") + calle ("street"), literally "street-passing"; first attested in English in the 1650s. Unlike a "chaconne," which anchors itself to a repeating cycle of chords, or the mere "ground" bass pattern itself, the passacaglia is defined by the solemn, obsessive tread of its melodic bass line—a fixed pilgrim walking through changing harmonic landscapes. It is the deliberate, fateful footsteps in a dim corridor, the unchanging toll of a bell beneath a sky of shifting clouds, the deep, plucked heartbeat over which a world of violins may weep and rage—the formal embodiment of a truth that endures while all else transforms.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar (“to pass”) + calle (“street”).
noun
- A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.“In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.”
- Any piece of classical music with similar characteristics.
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