Edexcel GCSE - Area of Study 1
Repetition and contrast in Western Classical Music 1600-1899
GROUND BASS / PASSACAGLIA
HOME PAGE What is a Passacaglia? What is a Chaconne? Back to GCSE Areas Index Mr. Ashworth's Passacaglia Links Listening ideas HOT POTATO QUIZ Edexcel Site Download Easy Worksheet Hot Potato Index When musicians improvise they are inventing music spontaneously. A sitar player might improvise around a 'raga' or a jazz group might use the harmonic plan of a song and improvise over it. Indeed they might vary the original tune, thus creating an instant set of variations.
In the Baroque era improvisation was common, and organists, such as Buxtehude and Bach, were skilled at it. Baroque composers before Bach's time had started to write down their variations and the formal structure which came most readily to them was the Ground Bass. A Ground Bass is a form of ostinato. In such a piece of music there is a recurring bass line and the variations are written over it. Such pieces are examples of "continuous variation" for, in most works entitled "Theme and Variations", each variation is a distinct section.
There are two names for Ground Bass pieces - chaconne and passacaglia. The distinctions are worth noting and certainly exist in plenty of examples. However, composers have not always used the names correctly, so their meanings have become blurred.
A chaconne is a series of unbroken variations invented on a recurring chord progression. Indeed, the 'theme' is the chord progression itself.
A passacaglia has a more melodic bass line rather than a prescribed series of harmonies. The theme is 'singable'. Passacaglias tend to be in a slow triple meter. Click here for another definition. [Top]
The important thing to remember about a passacaglia is that the ground does not change. In Purcell's "When I am laid in earth" from "Dido and Aeneas" the ground bass repeats exactly with no melodic or rhythmic change whatsoever.
Some passacaglia themes include chromatic phrases, the prime example, again, being Purcell's Ground Bass aria "When I am laid in earth". [Purcell was a real genius when it came to writing the melody over a Ground. He liked to overlap the melody so that the end of a melodic phrase did not match up with the end (and thus, the next statement) of the Bass] Eighteenth-century audiences would have recognised the chromatic descent in Dido's Lament as a formula which, for them, held a meaning. In opera, such music was reserved for the most poignant of scenes, while in church music it was associated with the pathos of Christ's crucifixion. In the "Crucifixus" of his 'Mass in B minor' Bach employs a 'lamento'. Bach's ground is, in fact, identical to the first half of Purcell's. This does not mean that Bach was copying Purcell; he probably had never heard of "Dido's Lament." Rather, the lamento bass was a stock phrase in eighteenth-century music and nearly every composer would have used it many times. Bach repeats the ground thirteen times. This number would have represented faithlessness and betrayal. [Thanks to Timothy Smith for letting me use his material for this paragraph]
In Bach's famous Passacaglia in C minor, he uses a borrowed theme as the basis for twenty variations, most of which state the ground literally in the bass. Some of the later variations place the ground in the alto. In a couple of variations the ground disappears altogether.
Here are some other well-known Ground Bass pieces. Thanks to Kenneth Rumery for this list. His Composer's Tools site is a good place to look:- [Top]
Anon
My Ladie Carey's Dompe
Bach
Mass in B minor, "Crucifixus"
Bach
Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin
Bartok
String Quartet No. 3, first part
Beethoven
Thirty-two Variations in C minor WoO 80
Bloch
String Quartet No. 2
Brahms
Symphony No. 4, mvt 4; Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Op. 56a
Britten
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings "Dirge"
Chopin
Berceuse for piano
Couperin
Pieces de Clavecin
Handel
Suites for Harpsichord
Healey-Willan
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue.
Hindemith
String Quartet No. 4, Op. 32, last movement
Honegger
Symphony No. 2, second movement
Lully
Amadis, final chorus
Monteverdi
L'incoronazione di Poppea, aria, "Ma che dico, o Poppea
Purcell
Ground for Harpsichord from Ye Tuneful Muses.
Purcell
A New Ground
Ravel
Trio in A minor for piano, violin and cello, third movement
Reger
Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor, Op. 145 for organ
Reger
Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue for two pianos, Op. 96
Rheinberger
Passacaglia for Organ from Sonata in E minor
Schoenberg
Pierrot Lunaire, No. 8, "Nacht"
Stravinsky
Histoire du Soldat (ostinato passages), Rite of Spring
Stravinsky
Septet, second movement
W.Tomkins
A Ground (in Fitzwilliam Virginal Book)
Webern
Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 1
You should also hear
- "Parisienne Walkways" sung and played by Gary Moore.
- Little Brown Jug (played by the Syd Lawrence Orchestra)
- Canon by Pachelbel and various pieces based on the same Ground Bass such as "Altogether Now".
Composition Briefs [Top]
You will need to select a Ground Bass, or compose one of your own.
- Compose a slow piece over a stately Ground Bass, for a small ensemble, which is to be played during a solemn procession.
- Compose an organ piece using a Ground Bass which cold be used as a voluntary.
- Compose a song over a Ground Bass.
- Use "La Folia" as the basis for an original composition.
"La Folia" (literally meaning mad or empty-headed) is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of music. In the 16th and 17th centuries various standard chord sequences were used as the basis for improvised dance tunes. "La Folia" was one which originated in Portugal in the 15th century and was used by many composers from that time even until the present day.
Mr. Ashworth's Passacaglia [Top]
You have heard Bach's Passacaglia in C minor. I wanted to write a Passacaglia to see exactly what was involved. I decided the following:-
- I would write in 3/4 as this tends to be the timesignature composers use.
- Passacaglias are often in a minor key. I wanted to avoid C minor (as Bach's was in C minor, not that I'm anywhere near as good a composer as he was), but I wanted an 'easy' key because GCSE students are going to study the music. I also wanted the keynote to be near the bottom of the 'cello range (look at the last bar). If I'd written in B minor the lowest B on a cello is not a particularly deep note.
- I wanted to include some chromatic motion in my 'Ground' as that, too, is often done. I didn't want as much as Purcell includes in "When I am laid in earth" from "Dido and Aeneas". My original bass had 3 notes G#, G, F# in bar 3, but I found this awkward once I got going.
- I wanted to use 4 instruments because the syllabus says the texture has to be varied. I didn't think 3 would be enough.
- I wanted to show you the kinds of texture you might consider using.
- I composed straight into Coda Finale on my computer and did not use pencil and paper at all. As I went on, I found I could copy and paste various lines - so I suppose I cheated a bit.
- I wrote the piece in three sessions. Friday night to Sunday afternoon. There are 14 sections including the bare statement of the theme, plus a Coda.
Look, then, at my Passacaglia (in concert pitch). You can find it on the Finale site if you have the Plug-in, or on this site.
Try the following questions. Bar numbers are given when a new thematic statement starts. For clarity, use these numbers in your answers. e.g. say S9 if you mean the statement which starts at bar 9. Write your answers on file paper.
1 What word describes the rhythm of the upper parts in S9?
2 What word describes the clarinet part in S17?
List the Statements where this part is heard again.3 In S25 does the violin make use of passing notes or auxiliary notes?
What kind are they?4 How is S57 related to S25?
5 Name the chord formed by the notes in bar 33. What happens on the 3rd beat?
6 Name the chord formed by the notes in bar 34 without the B flat. What difference does the B flat make?
7 Name the chord formed by the notes in bar 35 without the F and G. What difference does the G make? You may need to discuss this bar with your teacher.
8 Describe the texture in S41. What is the mood of this section?
9 Look at the upper 3 parts in S49 and say where the various lines were heard before. Mention 4 differences and suggest a reason or reasons for them.
10 In what ways are S65 and S33 similar, and in what ways are they different?
11 Look at S73 and say where each line comes from. What do you notice about the top two parts when compared to statement which originally presented that music?
12 Describe S81.
13 Describe S105. What is the main difference here?
14 What is the name of the effect in the last bar?
15 What technical difficulty does the clarinet writing present in S89?
- Passacaglia
- Ostinato
- The Purcell project (Midi files of his music)
- La Folia [This link has moved and I need to find it again!]