Great passacaglias...

As a form is one of the most serious along with the Chaconne. Great composers have written some quite interesting and magnificent works in these forms, particularly in the Baroque era.

Bach's glorious Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor or the third movement of Ravel's Piano Trio are some superb examples of a most creative and inventive use of the form.

Parla

The Irgens-Jensen was completely new to me before that recommendation (as was Irgens-Jensen himself, I must admit), but I can't remember another piece of music  which impressed me so much on very first hearing for many a year.

For me, the Baroque was the great age for this form. Antonio Bertali and Tarquinio Merula wrote some fine ones. And Lully created several glorious examples in his later operas, especially Armide and Roland --  10-12 minute spans of continuous music, beginning with the orchestra and gradually adding soloists and chorus, then scaling back down to just instruments again. Rameau copied this trick in Les Indes Galantes and elsewhere, but not at the same length.

I find myself compelled to fully agree with mussessein about Baroque and the triumph of this particular form.

Apart from the ones mussessein mentioned, there are five superb Passacaglias, one by the French Louis Couperin (in g minor) for Harpsichord and four by the Germans :

- Biber's for Solo Violin (in g minor too) and the one in the last of the "Mystery Sonatas" for Violin and B.C.: Some of the best and very demanding as well inspiring music written for the violin.

- Kerll's Passacaglia  in d minor for Organ : a glorious piece of substantive development and austere beauty.

- Buxtehude's magnificent Passacaglia in d minor, BuxWV 161 for organ and

- Bach's monumental Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor, BWV 582, the most divinely inspired, deeply elaborated, superbly structured work for this form. It has been orchestrated by quite a few for large Orchestra, most notable the master composer of orchestration Respighi and the master maestro of orchestration Stokowski. It has been transcribed by Liszt as well for piano.

It's quite interesting that the form attracts (almost) exclusively the minor mode (see above), while at least Mendelssohn's Passacaglia for Organ is in c minor too, and the respective of Reger too.

Parla

Hi Naupilus.

What I meant by substantial is that Webern's opus 1 is quite a long piece compared to what followed and his use of compression. It's almost like that piece stands at a crossroads, and he went in a different direction than we might have anticipated. It's also like  a 'graduation' piece for his opus 1, using an old form to underpin a piece for orchestra.

The opus 2 after that is a wonderful 3 minute choral piece.

I certainly don't mean it in a qualitative way, as if to say it's a more rewarding piece, simply the length. A passacaglia is normally a fairly lengthy piece of course because it requires a certain number of repetitions of an 8 bar theme say. I think the Webern is about 12 minutes if my memory serves.

I too have the Webern boxed set with Boulez. Our collections at times look remarkably similar! Like you I do admire his use of compression.

For me some of his choral works in his output are really strong - The Light of The Eye and the Two Cantatas, and the short work opus 2.

Regards

Mark

How could I have forgotten Biber? Yes, absolutely, his is glorious. The Mystery Sonatas as a whole are magnificent -- I've learned more about the violin from them than I have from Bach's solo violin work.