Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A slow, stately dance in triple time of the 1700s.
  • noun The music for this dance.
  • noun A form consisting of variations based on a reiterated harmonic pattern.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old dance or saraband, probably of Moorish or Spanish origin.
  • noun A musical composition in the movement of such a dance, in slow tempo, usually in triple rhythm, and properly consisting of a series of variations upon a ground-bass of eight bars' length. It closely resembles the passacaglia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) An old Spanish dance in moderate three-four measure, like the Passacaglia, which is slower. Both are used by classical composers as themes for variations.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A slow, stately Baroque dance
  • noun music The music for such a dance, often containing variations on a theme

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Spanish chacona, a kind of dance in quick tempo, of unknown origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, from Spanish chacona.

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Examples

  • Vestris deeply regretted that the opera was not terminated by a piece they called a chaconne, in which he displayed all his power.

    Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete Various

  • Vestris deeply regretted that the opera was not terminated by a piece they called a chaconne, in which he displayed all his power.

    Marie Antoinette — Complete 1787

  • Vestris deeply regretted that the opera was not terminated by a piece they called a chaconne, in which he displayed all his power.

    Marie Antoinette — Volume 03 1787

  • There was something dangerous about what followed, something not unlike the edge of madness or at least of a nightmare; and although Jack recognized that the whole sonata and particularly the chaconne was a most impressive composition he felt that if he were to go on playing it with all his heart it might lead him to very strange regions indeed.

    Archive 2009-12-01 Victoria Janssen 2009

  • There was something dangerous about what followed, something not unlike the edge of madness or at least of a nightmare; and although Jack recognized that the whole sonata and particularly the chaconne was a most impressive composition he felt that if he were to go on playing it with all his heart it might lead him to very strange regions indeed.

    Did You Know Bach Had a Father? Victoria Janssen 2009

  • Another characteristic trait of a chaconne is a regularly repeating harmonic structure.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • "chaconne," and worried the composer to induce him to introduce one.

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 Horace Walpole 1757

  • We rename an eatery with a French name as we continue to deny that our national floral emblem its correct vernacular name, "chaconier '', derived from the French" chaconne "a medieval song/dance of France, Spain and Italy where the dancers festooned their costumes with little red flags which moved with their dance movements causing the flags to flutter.

    TrinidadExpress Today's News 2009

  • "The Salonen suggests the Bach because it is in the form of a chaconne," explains Ms. Koh.

    A Violinist on a Solo Mission Stuart Isacoff 2011

  • The sound of the violin chaconne played on viola and transposed to a darker G minor, interwoven with Langeland improvising a keening, open-throated Ave Maria, proves strangely persuasive.

    Sinikka Langeland: Maria's Song 2010

Comments

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  • "The opening movements were full of technical difficulties and he doubted he would ever be able to do them anything like justice, but it was the great chaconne which followed that really disturbed him."

    —Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 154–155

    Now I'm stuck singing that stupid song again. See aga.

    February 13, 2008

  • Bach. D minor. Solo violin. 15 minutes of heaven.

    October 31, 2008

  • "Like Espinel's chaconne, the sarabande or zarabanda originated as a dance among the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Brought to Europe by Spanish sailors, it was played on the guitar."

    —Glenn Kurtz, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 114

    November 3, 2008