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The ground bass or repeating harmony is among my favorite compositional techniques. Having a repeating harmony lets you focus on making interesting melodies and counterpoints and textures. Above all the focus is on varying every aspect of music - since the harmonies repeat, it is necessary to compensate with highly contrasting rhythms and textures.
I would recommend some sections be little more than plain harmony, either simple chords or arpeggios. Other sections might vaguely ornament or fill in the chords with basic melodic tracery. And of course other sections should have strong, memorable melodies.
If there are many instruments, be sure to have some sections with all instruments in dense counterpoint, other sections with homophony, others with just one or two instruments alone.
Do the same with rhythm... it should vary from slow to fast. Many Germanic passacaglias and ciacconas start slow and gradually build up to a fast climax. Italian ones take a sectional approach using dance rhythms.
Even the repeating bass or harmonies are usually varied. For example, you might use an occasional minor iv instead of an IV or have an unexpected deceptive cadence at a turning point. Many of the longer German organ passacaglias modulate to the relative major. Frescobaldi's One Hundred Variations on the Passacaglia modulates, I think, through d minor, F Major (and minor!), C Major (and minor!), a minor and ends in e minor! Don't forget you can switch to the parallel major or minor too. Of course you can't modulate too much if you want to keep the ostinato feel. If you instead have a repeating bass, add little ornaments to it sometimes, or move it to a new register or instrument, or let it drop out entirely for a few measures.
Also as you vary all this, be sure that the phrasing does not always coincide with the beginning and end of the ostinanto. If this makes any sense, try to keep melodies moving across the cadences or else the music will feel choppy. Or you can organize ideas in larger chunks, like two repeats of the pattern, etc...
If the piece is short you might be able to repeat each variation, or just repeat some. In my most successful passacaglia, I used a slow, majestic dotted rhythm in the beginning and repeated it in the end; the middle was fast and energetic.
The ways these forms developed during the Baroque is a long story, and I don't have time to give my thoughts about it, but it is true that the chaconne and passacaglia were never distinguished then the way they are today. Whatever you want to call them, the techniques used are much the same.
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DNSIHSXPI
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Mar 2 2008, 11:40 PM
Then add voices and melodies on top, developing them and working with the harmonies underneath to create a unified piece.
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