Chaconne

A chaconne (/ʃəˈkɒn/ shə-KON, French: [ʃakɔn]; Spanish: chacona [tʃaˈkona]; Italian: ciaccona [tʃakˈkoːna]; earlier English: chacony) is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short 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 it closely resembles the passacaglia. It originates and was particularly popular in the Baroque era; a large number of Chaconnes exist from the 17th- and 18th- centuries.

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 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.

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