I completed my passacaglia. Please feel free to correct me if my terminology is incorrect. Also, I apologize about the sibelius file. It works fine, but I don't really know how to use the program so the format is a little odd looking. The two midi files are for comparison (if one sounds worse than the other). One is piano, the other uses bassoon (the Church Organ midi instrument sounds awful, imo)
There are 14 statements of the ostinato, broken into 4 main sections. The first statement is the ostinato itself, the following two statements are varied a little to accommodate the 2 statement long uppervoice accompaniment. This 2 statement long tendency remains throughout much of the piece.
There are only 2 literal repetitions of upper voice material, but the difference is the form the ostinato takes.
The 4th, 7th, and 10th statements are modulations to Em (and back to B again after these statements complete). They break up the piece into the 4 sections.
Following the uppervoice 2 statement long tendencies, the first half of the passacaglia is more or less normal, while the second half begins to make use of a melodically inverted version of the ostinato (the two Em modulations there are mostly the regular ostinato).
This piece ends with in a single voice (upper) doing an appregiation that hints at the ostinato.
The feeling this piece gives me is one of foreboding, sometimes in a playful sort of way (if that makes any sense). There is also a sense of not having completed something important, like an awareness of negative consequences hanging over your head.
Edit: well I just thought of a name, or a way to get to the name. What this piece really makes me think of is sailors drowning at sea. Something like "Sea's Lament", "Lament of the Drowned Sailors". It's like the piece is describing the story of what happened to this unfortunate group of seafarers. Thalatos Oduromai? (greek, since this brings the odyssey to my mind).
What is to follow after that is a 4 voice fugue using the ostinato as its subject (double fugue, though that kind of makes me feel like I'm ripping BWV 582 more than I already am). When it stabilizes the fugue is to alternate between the mirror form and the normal form, punctuated by modulatory episodes of mostly unrelated material. I also plan to run the subjects in B major for a short while. I have the thing planned, and I've finished the first exposition (of 6). I'm a little nervous about starting the episode for some reason (I've never gotten far enough in a fugue to write one yet).
I have an mp3 using an organ soundfont, if the midis/sibelius sound terrible. At any rate, feel free to use whatever is most comfortable/convenient for you.
www.bitblade.djbouche.net/things/Passacaglia_in_Bm .mp3