(Sp.).
A type of ripresa or ritornello similar to the Spanish passacalle (see Passacaglia). It first appeared in J.C. Amat’s Guitarra española (originally published in 1586/1596, though the earliest surviving copy dates from 1626). Sanz (1674) described Amat’s paseos as passacalles and used the two terms interchangeably in the titles of his own compositions. Pablo Minguet y Yrol in the guitar portion of his Reglas y advertencias generales (Madrid, 1754/R) quoted extensively from Amat’s book and substituted the word ‘passacalle’ for ‘paseo’. Cabanilles wrote five sets of keyboard variations called passacalles and four others entitled paseos (see HAM, no.239). The term occurs with a choreographic meaning in Juan de Esquivel’s Discursos sobre el arte del dançado (Seville, 1642), where it refers to a complete cycle of dance steps.
R. Hudson: ‘Further Remarks on the Passacaglia and Ciaccona’, JAMS, xxiii (1970), 302–14
R. Hudson: Passacaglio and Ciaccona: from Guitar Music to Italian Keyboard Variations in the 17th Century (Ann Arbor, 1981)
RICHARD HUDSON