ground bass en · NOUN
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) A constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in a piece.
In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.
1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3:
- (countable, uncountable) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ground, bass.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ground basses | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| groundbass | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
chaconne · passacaglia · variations