Seasons > 2001-02 Season > Concerts >

Chaconnes et passacailles

Friday April 5, 2002, 8:00 pm

Works by Purcell, Biber, Marcello and Marais.

During the Baroque era chaconnes and passacaglias evolved from modest beginnings into large-scale vocal and instrumental forms. Their common defining characteristic is a series of uninterrupted variations on a recurring motif in the bass line, one that can either be explicitly sounded or implied by the sequence of chords. With their noble ternary rhythms and the inexorable pulse of their ground bass, these forms are particularly appropriate for musical representations of perpetual motion or the immutable orbits of celestial spheres.

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