Classical Music | Piano Music

Johann Sebastian Bach

Chaconne from Partita in d minor, BWM 1004  Play

Beatrice Berrut Piano

Recorded on 06/06/2012, uploaded on 10/24/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The Ciaconna, commonly known as "the Chaconne," is composed in D minor and is set in simple triple meter. It contains the common and well known baseline, D D C D B G A D, and the subject, known as the romanesca, D C B A, a baseline descending from tonic to dominant within four bars. The Chaconne contains three repetitions of the four-bar theme and a total of sixty-one four-bar variations, thirty after each of the first two themes and the remaining one after the third as a final cadence. Bach employs several different variational techniques in the Chaconne, several of them resulting in implied counterpoint of four or more voices, remarkable for a composition for a solo instrument. Busoni was a fervent admirer of Bach, and he transcribed many of his works for piano solo.      Beatrice Berrut