Thepassacaglia (/pæsəˈkɑːliə/;Italian:[passaˈkaʎʎa]) is amusical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is typically based on a bass-ostinato and written intriple metre.
The term passacaglia (Spanish:pasacalle; French:passacaille; Italian:passacaglia,passacaglio,passagallo,passacagli,passacaglie) derives from the Spanishpasar (cross, pass) andcalle (street).[1][2] It originated in early 17th-century Spain as astrummedinterlude between instrumentally accompanied dances or songs. Despite the form's Spanish roots (confirmed by references in Spanish literature of the period), the first written examples of passacaglias are found in an Italian source dated 1606.[3] These pieces, as well as others from Italian sources from the beginning of the century, are simple, brief sequences of chords outlining acadential formula.[2]
The passacaglia was redefined in the late 1620s by Italian composerGirolamo Frescobaldi, who transformed it into a series of continuousvariations over a bass (which itself may be varied).[2] Later composers adopted this model, and by the nineteenth century the word came to mean a series of variations over anostinato pattern, usually of a serious character.[2] A similar form, thechaconne, was also first developed by Frescobaldi.[4] The two genres are closely related, and since "composers often used the terms chaconne and passacaglia indiscriminately ... modern attempts to arrive at a clear distinction are arbitrary and historically unfounded".[5]
In early scholarship, attempts to formally differentiate between the historical chaconne and passacaglia were made, but researchers often came to opposite conclusions. For example,Percy Goetschius held that the chaconne is usually based on a harmonic sequence with a recurring soprano melody, and the passacaglia was formed over a ground bass pattern,[6] whereasClarence Lucas defined the two forms in precisely the opposite way.[7] More recently, however, some progress has been made toward making a useful distinction for the usage of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when some composers (notably Frescobaldi andFrançois Couperin) deliberately mixed the two genres in the same composition.[8]
The melodic pattern—usually four, six or eight (rarely seven) bars long—repeats without change through the duration of the piece, while the upper lines are varied freely, over the bass pattern serving as a harmonic anchor.
The seventeenth-century chaconne, as found in Frescobaldi's music, more often than not is in amajor key, while the passacaglia is usually in aminor key.[9] In eighteenth-century French practice, the passacaglia leans more strongly to the melodic basso ostinato, while the chaconne, "in a reversal of the [seventeenth-century] Italian practice, in various respects undergoes a freer treatment".[10]
Some examples are the organ passacaglias ofJohann Sebastian Bach,Dieterich Buxtehude,Johann Pachelbel,Sigfrid Karg-Elert,Johann Caspar Kerll,Daniel Gregory Mason,Georg Muffat,Gottlieb Muffat,Johann Kuhnau,Juan Bautista Cabanilles,Bernardo Pasquini,Max Reger,Ralph Vaughan Williams (Passacaglia on B–G–C, 1933),George Frideric Handel andLeo Sowerby.
Passacaglias forlute have been composed by figures such asAlessandro Piccinini,Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger,Sylvius Leopold Weiss,Esaias Reusner,Count Logy,Robert de Visée,Jacques Bittner,Philipp Franz Lesage de Richée [fr],François Dufault,Jacques Gallot,Denis Gaultier,Ennemond Gaultier, andRoman Turovsky-Savchuk, a passacaglia forbandura byJulian Kytasty, and forbaroque guitar byPaulo Galvão,Santiago de Murcia,Francisco Guerau,Gaspar Sanz, andMarcello Vitale.[citation needed]
One of the best known examples of the passacaglia inWestern classical music is thePassacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, fororgan byJohann Sebastian Bach. The Frenchclavecinists, especiallyLouis Couperin and his nephewFrançois Couperin, used a variant of the form—thepassacaille enrondeau—with a recurring episode between the variations.Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's "Passacaglia", the last piece of the monumentalRosary Sonatas, is one of the earliest known compositions for solo violin. The central episode ofClaudio Monteverdi's madrigalLamento della Ninfa is a passacaglia on a descendingtetrachord. The first two movements of the fourth sonata fromJohann Heinrich Schmelzer'sSonatæ unarum fidium are passacaglias on adescending tetrachord, but in uncharacteristic major. In 1650 or earlier,Andrea Falconieri published a passacalle movementà tre,basso continuo, in Naples.[11] The fourth movement ofLuigi Boccherini's Quintettino No. 6, Op. 30, (also known asMusica notturna delle strade di Madrid) is titled "Passacalle". The last movement ofGeorge Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite in G minor (HWV 432) is a passacaglia which has become well known as a duo for violin and viola, arranged by the Norwegian violinistJohan Halvorsen.
Other examples ofpassacaille includeLes plaisirs ont choisi fromJean-Baptiste Lully's operaArmide (1686) andDido's Lament,When I am Laid in Earth fromHenry Purcell'sDido and Aeneas, theariaPiango, gemo, sospiro byAntonio Vivaldi,[citation needed] or "Usurpator tiranno" andStabat Mater byGiovanni Felice Sances, et al.
Nineteenth-century examples include the C-minor passacaglia for organ byFelix Mendelssohn, and the finale ofJosef Rheinberger's Eighth Organ Sonata. Notable passacaglias byJohannes Brahms can be found in the last movement of hisFourth Symphony, which many musicians place among Brahms' finest compositions. Composed by Brahms to conform to the strictmetrics ofclassical dance, British conductorConstant Lambert called the piece "grimly intellectual".[12] In Brahms'sVariations on a Theme by Haydn, the bass repeats the same harmonic pattern throughout the piece. The first movement ofHans Huber's Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 113 (1899) is a passacaglia.[13]
The passacaglia proved an enduring form throughout the twentieth century and beyond. In mid-century, one writer stated that "despite the inevitable lag in the performance of new music, there are more twentieth-century passacaglias in the active repertory of performers than baroque works in this form".[14] Three composers especially identified with the passacaglia areBenjamin Britten,Dmitri Shostakovich, andPaul Hindemith. In his operas, Britten often uses a passacaglia to create the climactic moment of the drama. Examples are found inPeter Grimes,Billy Budd,The Turn of the Screw,Death in Venice, and even in the comic operaAlbert Herring. Britten also employed the form in smaller vocal forms, such as theSerenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943) andThe Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945) for voice and piano, as well as in purely instrumental compositions, notably in theViolin Concerto, the second and thirdCello suites, thesecond andthird string quartets, theCello Symphony, and theNocturnal after John Dowland for guitar. Shostakovich restricted his use of the passacaglia to instrumental forms, the most notable examples being found in his Interlude in Act II of the operaLady Macbeth of Mtsensk,Tenth String Quartet,Second Piano Trio,Eighth andFifteenth Symphonies, andFirst Violin Concerto. Hindemith employed the form to conclude his 1938 ballet,Nobilissima Visione, and it is also found in his early Sonata for viola solo, Op. 11, No. 5 (1919) and the second movement of the song cycleDas Marienleben (1948), as well as in later works such as the Fifth String Quartet and the Octet for winds and strings.Igor Stravinsky used the form for the central movement of hisSeptet (1953), a transitional work between hisneoclassical andserial periods. A passacaglia is also found in the finale ofWitold Lutosławski'sConcerto for Orchestra, and in the final movement ofCaroline Shaw'sPartita for 8 Voices.
Especially important examples of the form are found in the output of theSecond Viennese School.Anton Webern's Opus 1 is aPassacaglia for Orchestra,Arnold Schoenberg included a passacaglia movement, "Nacht", inPierrot lunaire, andAlban Berg, like Britten, used a passacaglia operatically, in act 1, scene 4 ofWozzeck.
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