Passacaglias

Composer: MARTÍN Y COLL, Antonio
  • These passacaglias are anonymously included in Martín y Coll’s collection, Flores de música. He might have written them, or he might have just collected them.1
  • In Martín y Coll’s manuscript, these passacaglias were arranged for organ. In this recording, they’re arranged for strings and continuo.
  • Genre: in the manuscript these are called by the Spanish name, passacalle, which means “walking in the street.” The genre originated in Spain as guitar interludes between verses of street songs/serenades. 2
  • The passacalle form is built on a repeating bass line or harmonic pattern.3
  • Read more about passacaglia in Oxford Reference

Sources

  1. Marie Leonhardt, liner notes to The Great Chaconnes of the Baroque, Ensemble Baroque de Mateus, Marie Leonhardt, Canal Grande 9109, Cd, 1992.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed., s.v. “Passacaglia” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).

Cut IDs

20549