chaconne

The chaconne (Italian: ciaccona) emerged as a wild, sensuous dance from Latin America in the late 16th century before being tamed into one of the most elevated forms in Baroque music. While closely related to the passacaglia, the chaconne is technically distinguished by being built on a repeating chord progression rather than a bass melody, though in practice the two forms often overlap. The chaconne typically maintains a stately triple meter throughout. The greatest chaconne in the repertoire is almost certainly the final movement of Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin (BWV 1004), a roughly 15-minute set of variations that Brahms described as "a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings" written for "one of the smallest, most limited instruments." This single movement has been transcribed for piano, guitar, orchestra, and virtually every other instrument, and is widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements in Western music.