Chaconne

Chaconne, a dance and a musical form, both in slow triple meter. The dance emerged about 1600 in Latin America and Spain as a humorous, risqué solo or couple dance. By the 1700s it had become a solemn figure dance for a double line of couples and was popular at the French court. Some writers define the musical form as variations on a ground bass, or constantly repeated bass phrase; others define it as continuous variations on a series of harmonies. The term passacaglia was also used for similar pieces; the distinction is ambiguous. French composers such as François Couperin used the term chaconne en rondeau for harpsichord pieces that are in the form A B A C A D ... A.