Chaconne

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In music, a chaconne (Italian: ciaccona) is a musical form whose primary formal feature involves variation on a repeated short harmonic progression. Originally a quick dance-song from Spain, with rather indelicate text, the chaconne eventually became a slow triple meter dance which first emerged in the 16th century. The chaconne is understood today -- in a rather arbitrary way -- to be a set of variations on a harmonic progression, as opposed to a set of variations on a melodic bass pattern (to which is likewise artificially assigned the term passacaglia). In actual usage in music history, the term "chaconne" has not been so clearly distinguished from passacaglia as regards the way the given piece of music is constructed.)

If a stereotypically "classic" chaconne may be described, it is usually (but not always) in major key, in triple meter, begins on the second beat of the bar, and has a theme of four measures (or a close multiple thereof). (In more recent times the chaconne, like the passacaglia, need not be in 3/4 time.)

If we accept the distinction of a chaconne as variations on a harmonic progression, often this harmonic progression may involve a recurrent bass line (ground bass), but this bass line -- let alone the chords involved -- may not always be present in exactly the same manner, although the general outlines remain understood. (Handel's "Chaconne" in G minor for keyboard has only the faintest relationship to the understood form.^[1]) The ground bass, if there is one, may typically descend stepwise from the tonic to the dominant pitch of the scale, or the harmony may emphasize the circle of fifths or a derivative pattern thereof.

One of the best known and most masterful and expressive examples of the chaconne is the final movement from the Violin Partita in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. This 13-minute chaconne takes a plaintive four-bar phrase through a continuous kaleidoscope of musical expression, in both major and minor modes. (Bach's Goldberg Variations are also frequently reckoned as a multi-movement chaconne, although Bach did not explicitly label the work as such.) After the baroque period, the chaconne fell into decline, though the 32 Variations in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven belong to the form. Johannes Brahms kept the form alive in the fourth (i.e., last) movement of his Symphony No. 4.

[edit] Examples of Chaconnes

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita no. 2 for Solo Violin in D minor
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4, 4th mvt. (1884-85)
Philip Glass: Symphony No.3, third, slow movement (1995)
George Frideric Handel: Chaconne from Suite in G minor for clavier
Gustav Holst: Chaconne from First Suite in E♭ for Military Band (technically a passacaglia)^[2]
Jean-Baptiste Lully : Chaconne from Phaëton (1683)
Johann Pachelbel: Canon in D (see that article for more examples using the chord progression of Pachelbel's Canon)
Henry Purcell: Chacony for strings and continuo in G minor Z.730 (1680)
Tomaso Antonio Vitali: Chaconne in G Minor for Solo Violin (a 19th century musical_hoax)
Michiru Yamane: Chaconne in C minor from the soundtrack of Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight, Saturn version. (note: this piece bears striking resemblances to the Passacaglia of J. S. Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor for organ)

[edit] References

^ Händel, Georg Friedrich. "Chaconne," Klavierwerke / Keyboard Works IV. Einzelne Suiten und Stücke / Miscellaneious Suites and Pieces. Zweite Folge / Second Part. Herausgebegen von / Edited by Terence Best. Kassel: Bärenreiter, c1975, pp. 47-49.
^ Udell, Budd (1982). "Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst's First Suite in E♭ Major for Military Band." Music Educators Journal, 69 (4):28 (JSTOR subscription access)