Chaconne

Many of his finest compositions for strings, in fact, date from this time, including the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin.

And the D minor partitas concluding Chaconne has long stood as one of this instrument's longest and most iconic and most challenging and most gratifying and fulfilling unaccompanied works.

And in the Chaconne, the composer constructs 64 variations on a basic four bar theme.

And the variations start out in accordance with the theme's relatively stern kind of stateliness.

But then the variations grow more and more complex and emotionally varied as the Chaconne unfolds.

In a letter to Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms described the Chaconne as a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.

And in this letter, Brahms went on to say that, if I imagine that I could have created, even conceived, the Chaconne, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.

If one doesn't have the greatest violinist around, then it is well the most beautiful pleasure to simply listen to its sound in one's mind.

you Thank you.

A Chaconne by Ferruccio Busoni, performed by pianist Artur Rubinstein.

I'm your host, Denise Finnegan-Hill, and you're listening to

Anytime Classical, a production of Classical Music Indie.

every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on WVIK Classical.

Music of Deborah Kay next, titled Turning in Time.

Kay uses references to the Chaconne from J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2, woven throughout the piece.

And here it is performed by violinist Kinga Agustin.

And the hemiola is a case where if you have a 1-2-3, 1-2-3, you can put accents on the 1 and then the 3 and then the 2 of the next measure.

1-2-3, 1-2-3. so that it feels like a twice as long triple meter one and two and three and one two three one two three one and two and three and like that and then we listened to one piece that was called a ground and this was very cool that we had that there because the ground is a form that later became known as the ground base and there were actually several different types of ground base forms including the Chaconne and the Passacaglia.

And Pachelbel's famous Canon in D is actually one of those.

It's not really a Canon, but it is maybe a Passacaglia, which means a repeated bass line.

But the first time I saw Bobby dance to Chaconne, I had tears flowing and I didn't understand why at all.

It was just like she was speaking to me from somewhere beyond.

from the beyond.

I sort of knew... what that world was about.

But I never found myself totally moved by it or excited necessarily.

But the first time I saw Bobby dance to Chaconne, I had tears flowing and I didn't understand why at all.

It was just like... she was speaking to me, um, from, from somewhere beyond, from the beyond.

And it was, it was, it was just extraordinary.