a slow instrumental piece characterized by a series of variations on a particular theme played over a repeated bass part
See also chaconne (sense 1)
Word origin
C17: earlier passacalle, from Spanish pasacalle street dance, from paso step + calle street; the ending -alle was changed to -aglia to suggest an Italian origin
passacaglia in American English
(ˌpɑsəˈkɑljə)
noun
1. Obsolete
a slow, stately Italian, Spanish, or French dance of the 17th c., similar to the chaconne
2.
the music for this dance
3.
a musical form based on this dance, in 3/4 time and with a continuous ground bass
Word origin
pseudo-It < Sp pasacalle < pasar (< VL *passare, pass2) + calle, street < L callis: so named from often being performed in the streets
Examples of 'passacaglia' in a sentence
passacaglia
They are playing some passacaglia for violin, Paganini, perhaps.