I make no promises to actually finish this piece, for the moment it’s just an interesting exercise.

A Passacaglia is a repeating bass line that gets different treatment every time it repeats. So it becomes an exercise in “how many different ways can I harmonise this bass?” The bass I’ve chosen is a very old (actually renaissance) tune called L’homme armé (The Armed Man). The actual notes I’m using are just a part of the original tune:

It’s not a very interesting tune to modern ears, but I’ve been working on this for a couple of months now, and I’m only just starting to realize the possibilities. First off, here’s a harmonisation “as is” in the Dorian Mode on C (two flats.)

Remember that these are just harmonic sketches, not finished music. To give you a taste of what can be done with it, here’s a section that is pretty much completely worked. It’s the same bass (exactly the same notes) but the harmony is in F, and the rhythm is 2/4 with triplets. At the moment I think it might form the finale, but plans can change:

Update

This eventually became variations on a ground: