chaconne
Americannoun
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chaconnes
plural
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an ancient dance, probably of Spanish origin, in moderate triple meter.
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a musical form based on the continuous variation of a series of chords or of a ground bass.
noun
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a musical form consisting of a set of continuous variations upon a ground bass See also passacaglia
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archaic a dance in slow triple time probably originating in Spain
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chaconne
1675–85; < French < Spanish chacona
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The third movement, “Giulio’s Song,” begins with a chaconne in memory of Corigliano’s friend Giulio Sorrentino, using a theme that Sorrentino and Corigliano had once improvised together.
From The New Yorker ● May 30, 2019
The second half was devoted to two suites by John Blow and three by his pupil Henry Purcell, each followed by a chaconne or a ground.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 15, 2017
Whole musical forms, such as the waltz or the chaconne, fall apart just as the dinner party does.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2016
That was clear in Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza VIII,” which owes much to the chaconne that ends Bach’s Partita in D minor.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2015
"A chaconne!" cried Gluck; "when did the Greeks ever dance a chaconne?"
From How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art by Krehbiel, Henry Edward
More numerous than the budding sonata forms you might look for in nascent symphonic works were backward-looking pieces built on ground basses: chaconnes and a passacaglia.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2013
Too many of the pieces are ground basses and chaconnes, but Pluhar's arrangements are stylishly varied.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2010
At the same time he made sarabandes, gavottes, minuets, chaconnes, passepieds, gigues, polonaises and rondos dance across the piano in quick succession; and his comments were as spirited as his playing.
From Edward MacDowell by Gilman, Lawrence
Claude Le Jeune wrote motets; the eighteenth-century masters wrote gavottes and rigadoons, forlanas and chaconnes, expressed themselves in courtly dances and other set and severe forms.
From Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers by Rosenfeld, Paul
He, the troubled, nervous, modern man, wrote with fluency fugues and double fugues, chaconnes and passacaglie, concerti grossi and variations.
From Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers by Rosenfeld, Paul
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
