Passamezzo antico

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The passamezzo antico, a favorite ground bass or chord progression during the Italian Renaissance and for all of Europe in the 1500s (van der Merwe, 1989, p.207), is consists of two phrases as follows:

i|VII|i|V|| III|VII|i-V|i||

Which is as follows in A minor:

Am|G|Am|E|| C|G|Am-E|Am||

Examples include "Greensleeves".

The progression is a variation of the double tonic, and its major mode variation is the passamezzo moderno.

[edit] Source

• van der Merwe, Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.