Kar-Ming Chong wrote:

>I'm trying find out if there are more Chaconne Pieces besides the famous
>ones by Bach and Bach/Busoni. Any Chaconnes out there?

The heyday of the chaconne was, of course, the 17th and 18th centuries,
from about the time of Monteverdi (or even before) to Rameau.  Most of
the Baroque composers we are familiar with who wrote instrumental music
have one or more chaconnes under their belts.

One thing to keep in mind is that the form changed drastically between
the early 17th century (when it was a fairly raucous dance number subject
to some sanction by authority, partly because of its supposed origins in
Latin America), to the more formalized style that we start to see by the
mid-1600s.  Even Monteverdi used the "chiaconna" bass figure in one of
his more famous madrigals.  Often, these early chaconnes were played by
ensembles that did not resemble the orchestra as we came to know it by
Bach's time--there was more in the way of strummed and plucked instruments,
even percussion, which seems to have reflected its roots.

Just about any of the French Baroque composers (Lully, Charpentier,
Couperin, Rameau) wrote them, fairly regularly including chaconnes in
French operas of the time.  The late ones by Rameau tend to stretch the
form to the breaking point, in that they seem to have evolved beyond the
familiarity of the repeated harmonic bass line.  Italian composers too,
of course (though the dominance of the Italian concerto form in the 18th
century makes them seem less numerous than in the 17th, or as was the case
with the French), and the Austro-Germanic violin masters such as Biber use
a similar form in many of their sonatas.  The G minor Chaconne of Purcell
has been mentioned before, but he also wrote chaconnes for his stage works,
such as "The Fairy Queen" and "King Arthur".

In any case, the strict chaconne "form" was probably never as well defined
as we like to think it was (Brahm's Fourth Symphony notwithstanding), so
rather than discuss "what is a chaconne", I'll say you can probably tell
one when you hear it....

The only "sampler" album of chaconnes that I know of is on Archiv, entitled
"Chaconne" with Musica Antiqua of Cologne/Reinhard Goebel.  Among others in
the album are TWO in G minor by Purcell!

However, if you're allergic to Baroque music other than Bach's, you'll
need to explore the recommendations of others.  I've done all I can:-)

Bill H.