Can we talk of a passacaglia principle?

The term “passacaglia” comes up periodically over the course of music history: used by composers in various periods and geographical areas, it has often been associated with pieces that are in fact quite different in nature. It is not easy to define once and for all what a passacaglia is: a dance, a harmonic scheme, a refrain, a ground bass, a series of variations on a theme, a tòpos, a formal model or perhaps even a musical genre? Given that the term appears in highly variegated contexts, its meaning is inevitably redefined each time on the basis of a particular situation. This should not however prevent us from making a few hypotheses as to the theoretical and hermeneutic relevance of a broadly ranging constructive principle that presents itself as a stable structure within Western music. As the question mark that appears in the title of this volume suggests, the identity and the status of this constructive principle largely remain to be defined. Accordingly, this volume’s objective is not to provide a complete theoretical codification, but simply to delineate a first attempt at reflecting on the passacaglia principle through the analysis of a few musical patterns that emerge in pieces and repertories that are very distant among themselves.