Cooke's Tour 13: 'Ground Bass' an introduction #CookesTour

It's week 13 of Richard Cooke's blog, and for Richard it's 'all about the bass', ground bass that is. This is a close relative of the Chaconne and the Passacaglia and is a musical device that many composers use. In layman's terms, a composer writes a few bars and then repeats them building a movement or aria based on them. In his blog, Richard looks at this device through four very different pieces with a simple theme being built up with varying degrees of intricacy and invention. As Richard comments 'in the hands of these great composers they reach far beyond technical brilliance into worlds of great aesthetic beauty and substance'.

Richard Cooke is Music Director of the Royal Choral Society, University of Essex Choir and Canterbury Choral Society.

#CookesTour