Chaconne

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This article is about the musical form. For the last movement of J. S. Bach's second violin partita, commonly referred to as "the Chaconne", see Partita for Violin No. 2 (Bach). For George Balanchine's 1976 ballet, see Chaconne (ballet).
The Chaconne from Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita for Violin No. 2

A chaconne (French: [ʃaˈkɔn]; Spanish: chacona; Italian: ciaccona, pronounced [tʃakˈkoːna]) is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the passacaglia.

The ground bass, if there is one, may typically descend stepwise from the tonic to the dominant pitch of the scale; the harmonies given to the upper parts may emphasize the circle of fifths or a derivative pattern thereof.

History

Though it originally emerged during the late sixteenth century in Spanish culture, having reputedly been introduced from the New World, as a quick dance-song characterized by suggestive movements and mocking texts,[1] by the early eighteenth century the chaconne had evolved into a slow triple meter instrumental form.

Outstanding examples of early baroque "ciaccone" are Monteverdi's "Zefiro torna" and "Es steh Gott auf" from Heinrich Schütz.[2]

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 256-measure chaconne takes a plaintive four-bar phrase through a continuous kaleidoscope of musical expression in both major and minor modes.

After the Baroque period, the chaconne fell into decline during the 19th century, though the 32 Variations in C minor by Beethoven suggest its continuing influence. However, the form saw a very substantial revival during the 20th century, with more than two dozen composers contributing examples (see below).

Chaconne and passacaglia

The chaconne has been understood by some nineteenth and early twentieth-century theorists—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),[3] while other theorists of the same period make the distinction the other way around.[4] 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, and "modern attempts to arrive at a clear distinction are arbitrary and historically unfounded."[5] In fact, the two genres were sometimes combined in a single composition, as in the Cento partite sopra passacagli by Girolamo Frescobaldi, and the first suite of Les Nations (1726) as well as in the Pièces de Violes (1728) by François Couperin.[6]

Frescobaldi, who was probably the first composer to treat the chaconne and passacaglia comparatively, usually (but not always) sets the former in major key, with two compound triple-beat groups per variation, giving his chaconne a more propulsive forward motion than his passacaglia, which usually has four simple triple-beat groups per variation.[7] Both are usually in triple meter, begin on the second beat of the bar, and have 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; see, for instance, Francesco Tristano's Chaconne/Ground Bass, where every section is built on seven-beats patterns)

A chaconne's 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[8] has only the faintest relationship to the understood form.[citation needed])

Examples of chaconnes

17th century

18th century

19th century

20th century

  • John Adams: second movement "Chaconne: Body Through Which the Dream Flows" from Violin Concerto (1993)
  • Malcolm Arnold: second movement "Chaconne" from Recorder Sonatina, Op. 41 (1953)
  • Malcolm Arnold: second movement "Chaconne: Andante con moto" from Quintet For Brass, Op. 73 (1961)
  • Béla Bartók: first movement, "Tempo di ciaccona" from the Sonata for violin solo (1944)
  • Howard Blake: Chaconne (from Lifecycle, sequence of 24 piano solos) (1975)
  • Benjamin Britten: "Chacony," third movement of the String Quartet No. 2, in C (1946)
  • Benjamin Britten: "Ciaccona," fifth movement of the Cello Suite No. 2 (1971)
  • John Corigliano: The Red Violin (Chaconne) for violin and orchestra
  • Johann Nepomuk David: Chaconne in A minor for organ (1933)
  • Johann Nepomuk David: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland: kleine Chaconne for organ
  • Norman Dello Joio: Variations, Chaconne, and Finale for orchestra
  • David Diamond: Chaconne, for violin and piano (1951)
  • Cornelis Dopper: Ciaconna gotica (1920)
  • Marcel Dupré: Triptyque, op. 51 (Chaconne, Musette, Dithyrambe), for organ
  • Jean Françaix: Chaconne for harp and string orchestra (1976)
  • Philip Glass: Echorus for two violins and string orchestra (1995)
  • Philip Glass: Symphony No. 3, third movement (1995)
  • Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1, second movement (1987)
  • Alexander Goehr: Chaconne, for organ (1985)
  • Sofia Gubaidulina: Chaconne, for piano (1962)
  • Hans Werner Henze: Il Vitalino raddoppiato: ciaccona per violino soloista e orchestra da camera (1977)
  • Heinz Holliger: Chaconne for solo cello (1975)
  • Gustav Holst: "Chaconne" from First Suite in E-flat major for Military Band (according to one writer, technically a passacaglia, but according to others, technically a chaconne)[9]
  • Arthur Honegger: Chaconne de l'impératrice, from the film music for Napoléon (1926–27)
  • Ernst Krenek: Toccata und Chaconne: über den Choral "Ja ich glaub an Jesum Christum", op. 13, for piano
  • György Ligeti: Hungarian Rock: Chaconne, for harpsichord
  • Douglas Lilburn: Chaconne, for Piano (1946)
  • Frank Martin: Chaconne, for cello and piano (1931)
  • Carl Nielsen: Chaconne, op. 32, for piano (1916–17)
  • Henri Pousseur: Chaconne for solo violin
  • Knudåge Riisager: Chaconne, op. 50, for orchestra
  • Poul Ruders: Chaconne for solo guitar
  • Franz Schmidt: Chaconne in C♯ minor, for organ. (1925) Arranged for orchestra (transposed to D minor) in 1931.
  • Reginald Smith Brindle: Chaconne and Interludes: (The Instruments of Peace III), for two guitars
  • Leo Sowerby: Chaconne, for tuba and piano (1938)
  • Leo Sowerby: Canon, Chacony, & Fugue for organ (1948)
  • David Van Vactor: Fantasia, Chaconne, and Allegro, for orchestra
  • Stefan Wolpe: Dance in Form of a Chaconne for piano (1941)
  • Michiru Yamane: Chaconne in C-moll for organ (1996)

21st century

References

  1. ↑ Alexander Silbiger, "Chaconne," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001).
  2. ↑ Gerald Drebes: "Schütz, Monteverdi und die 'Vollkommenheit der Musik' – 'Es steh Gott auf' aus den Symphoniae sacrae II (1647)". In: Schütz-Jahrbuch, Jg. 14, 1992, pp. 25–55 (online).
  3. ↑ Percy Goetschius, The Larger Forms of Musical Composition: An Exhaustive Explanation of the Variations, Rondos, and Sonata Designs, for the General Student of Musical Analysis, and for the Special Student of Structural Composition ([New York]: G. Schirmer, 1915), 29 and 40.
  4. ↑ Lucas, Clarence Lucas, 1908. The Story of Musical Form (The Music Story Series, edited by Frederick J. Crowest. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), 203.
  5. ↑ Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York: Norton, 1947), 42.
  6. ↑ Alexander Silbiger, "Passacaglia and Ciaccona: Genre Pairing and Ambiguity from Frescobaldi to Couperin," Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 2, no. 1 (1996).
  7. ↑ Alexander Silbiger, "Chaconne" The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001).
  8. ↑ Händel, Georg Friedrich. "Chaconne," Klavierwerke / Keyboard Works IV. Einzelne Suiten und Stücke / Miscellaneous Suites and Pieces. Zweite Folge / Second Part. Herausgebegen von / Edited by Terence Best. Kassel: Bärenreiter, c1975, pp. 47-49.
  9. ↑ Budd Udell, "Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst's First Suite in E♭ Major for Military Band." Music Educators Journal 69, no. 4 (1982) page 28. (JSTOR subscription access) – Pam Hurry, Mark Phillips, and Mark Richards, (Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-435-81258-0) p. 238. – Clarence Lucas, The Story of Musical Form (The Music Story Series, edited by Frederick J. Crowest. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908) page 203.

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