Chaconne

Common card · No. 324407

A chaconne ( shə-KON, French: [ʃakɔn]; Spanish: chacona [tʃaˈkona]; Italian: ciaccona [tʃakˈkoːna]; earlier English: chacony) is a type of musical composition frequently used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated brief harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offers a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this respect, it closely resembles the passacaglia. It originated in the Baroque era, when it was particularly popular; a large number of Chaconnes from the 17th and 18th centuries are in existence. The ground bass, if there is one, may typically descend gradually from the tonic to the dominant pitch of the scale; the harmonies given to the upper parts may emphasise the circle of fifths or a derivative pattern thereof.

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