The Collaborative International Dictionary
Passacaglia \Pas`sa*ca*glia\, Passacaglio \Pas`sa*ca*glio\, n. [Sp. pasacalle a certain tune on the guitar, prop., a tune played in passing through the streets.] (Mus.) An old Italian or Spanish dance tune, in slow three-four measure, with divisions on a ground bass, resembling a chaconne.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
dance tune of Spanish origin, 1650s, from Italian, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar "to pass" (see pass (v.)) + calle "street." So called because they often were played in the streets.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music English) A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple metre, and use of a ground bass. 2 (context music English) Any piece of classical music with similar characteristics.
Wikipedia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre.
Passacaglia is a solo piano composition by the composer Leopold Godowsky. It was completed in New York, on October 21, 1927. The composition commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Franz Schubert. Typical of Godowky's composition style, the piece contains dense contrapuntal, polyphonic, and chromatic writing.
Usage examples of "passacaglia".
The quartet was reaching the end of its final movement now, the moving, introspective passacaglia, written when Britten was approaching death.
It continued the searching seeking, learning more than it could bear of joys and sorrows, impassioned paeans, painful passacaglias of species gone, dead worlds which made it hasten.