Passamezzo antico

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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, 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|| Am|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.

The passamezzo antico has not been forgotten in popular music culture; if the composers of two examples in Carrie Underwood's debut album "Some Hearts" were aware of this. "Before he Cheats" (a big US hit in 2006) and "Starts with Goodbye" both follow this ancient harmonic ground. Even another big hit - "Happy Together" (the Turtles - 1967) has a familiar ring about it.

[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.


 This music theory article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Languages