Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/19/2012, uploaded on 01/19/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004, arr.  Feruccio Busoni

According to Alex Ross in Listen to This, the origins of the chacona (“a sexily swirling dance that hypnotized all who heard it …”) possibly lie in Peru, with definite import via Spain in the seventeenth century. By the time J.S. Bach wrote his Chaconne (from his Partita No. 2 for solo violin), its association with the devilish dance had perhaps vanished, although the chaconne’s triple meter, emphasis on the second beat, use of ostinato, and dance-like spirit remains in this noble, epic work. It contains sixty-four variations based on a theme set in D minor, a theme which begins with an opening chord on the second beat.       Brian Lee

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.