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Whether you call it a passacaglia, chaconne, or ground, the technique of virtuosic writing over a repeated theme in the bass seems to bring out the best in a composer! We'll hear favorites by Buxtehude, Bertali, Falconieri, and more! 

  • Andrea Falconieri: Ciaconna. Performed by Capella de la Torre.
  • Tarquinio Merula: Ciacona. Performed by Ensemble Badinerie. 
  • Maurizio Cazzati: Passacaglio. Performed by Ensemble Badinerie.
  • Henry Purcell: Three Parts upon a Ground. Performed by Hesperion XXI.
  • Henry Purcell: Mark how readily each pliant string. Performed by Anna Prohaska, soprano & Arcangelo.
  • Henry Purcell: Curtain Tune from ‘Timon of Athens’. Performed by Arcangelo. 
  • Dieterich Buxtehude: Passacaglia in D minor. Performed by Harald Vogel.
  • Girolamo Frescobaldi: 2 Passacaglias. Performed by Ingrid Matthews, violin & Byron Schenkman, harpsichord. 
  • Samuel Capricornus: Ciaconna in D major for violin and viola da gamba. Performed by Ensemble Echo du Danube.
  • Giovanni Felice Sances: Lament on the Passacaglia. Performed by Maura Pederzoli, soprano & Sergio Vartolo, harpsichord.
  • Robert de Visee: Chaconne des Harlequins de Mr. Lully. Performed by Nigel North, lute.
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