''Chaconne in F minor'' (
PWC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
43, T. 206, PC 149, POP 16) is an
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
chaconne
A chaconne (; ; es, chacona, links=no; it, ciaccona, links=no, ; 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 rep ...
by
Johann Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel (baptised – buried 9 March 1706; also Bachelbel) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and h ...
. One of the six surviving chaconnes by the composer, it is one of his best known organ works.
Like most other chaconnes by Pachelbel (with the exception of ''Chaconne in D major'', PWC 40, T. 203, PC 145, POP 13), ''Chaconne in F minor'' survives in a single copy. The manuscript is currently in possession of the
Royal Library of Belgium
The Royal Library of Belgium (french: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, abbreviated ''KBR'' and sometimes nicknamed in French or in Dutch) is the national library of Belgium. The library has a history t ...
in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(catalogue number MS II.3911) and contains seven groups of pieces, each containing a chaconne. One of these is the ''Chaconne in F minor'', attributed by the scribe to Pachelbel. Another chaconne from the same source, in A major, is also attributed to Pachelbel, but the piece has yet to be examined by the experts (it is included as one of doubtful authorship in the Perreault catalogue, PWC 44). There are also four anonymous chaconnes, possibly composed by a pupil of Pachelbel.
No information concerning the date of composition is known. Since the piece is more sophisticated than most other chaconnes, it may represent a late stage of development of Pachelbel's chaconne style.
The chaconne comprises a theme and 22 variations, the last of which is an almost exact repeat of the theme. The
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...
bass pattern is not kept intact in all variations, and disappears in some, anticipating similar passages in Johann Sebastian Bach's famous ''
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor
''Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor'' (BWV 582) is an organ piece by Johann Sebastian Bach. Presumably composed early in Bach's career, it is one of his most important and well-known works, and an important influence on 19th and 20th century pas ...
'',
BWV
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a ...
582.
[Apel 1972, 659.] Pachelbel's variation technique serves to "dissect" the harmonies, rather than vary the "theme", which is typical of his mature chaconnes, including the ''
Chaconne in D minor'' and the ''Chaconne in F major''.
[Nolte, Butt, Grove.] The ''Chaconne in F minor'' has been described as one of Pachelbel's finest works.
References
Bibliography
*
Apel, Willi. 1972. ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700''. Translated by Hans Tischler. Indiana University Press. . Originally published as ''Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700'' by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel.
* Hill, Robert Stephen. 1987. ''The Möller Manuscript and the Andreas Bach Book: Two keyboard anthologies from the circle of the young Johann Sebastian Bach''. Harvard University (dissertation).
*
* Welter, Kathryn Jane. 1998. ''Johann Pachelbel: Organist, Teacher, Composer. A Critical Reexamination of His Life, Works, and Historical Significance'', pp. 135–150. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (dissertation).
*
Williams, Peter F.. 2003. ''The Organ Music of J. S. Bach''. Cambridge University Press.
External links
*
{{Authority control
Compositions by Johann Pachelbel
Compositions for organ
Compositions in F minor