Here is truly the _cantable_,[93] as Bach called it, never hesitating to coin French words; the second part of the _Canzona_ which follows this species of march is written in 3/2 time, after the established rule; it is more abstract, and not without prolixity. [Footnote 93: This is the term which Bach employs in the preface to his _Inventionen und Sinfonien_ compiled in 1723, that his pupils might, through their study, acquire _un jeu cantable_.] If all the grace, the melodic freedom of the _Canzone_ of Frescobaldi are surpassed in this work, an _Alla Breve_[94] in _D_ major reminds us more of the studied style, of the continuous movement of the _Ricercare_, with some reminiscence of a piece which Pachelbel wrote under the same title and in the same key.[95] [Footnote 94: P. viii, 6.] [Footnote 95: Commer. _Musica Sacra_ (Vol. I, No. 123, p. 137).] The _Passacaglia_[96] again exemplifies the discreet cleverness which Bach henceforth displays in his imitations; he realizes that he has risen above his models, and he now chooses his colors with a critical eye. In this instance he takes us back to Buxtehude. [Footnote 96: P. i, 2. B.-G. xv, p. 289. [M. Pirro writes me: "You may state that the theme of the Passacaglia was the composition of the French organist André Raison." To which M. Widor adds: "André Raison, organist of St.-Étienne du Mont in Paris at the time of Louis XIV, left a volume of organ works, now very rare, which I have presented to the library of the Conservatoire. Raison's collection is interesting, in that it gives indications of the registration of his time; the chorale is usually found in the pedal, treated as the tenor, the real bass being played by the left hand. The melody of the chorale is performed upon a reed stop in the pedal, while upon the manuals only mixtures are drawn." Tr.]] Among the works of the latter are various pieces of this same order, Passacaglias or Chaconnes, written over an _ostinato_; which is not necessarily confined to the bass in its original form, but which modulates here and there into closely related keys, or appears in other parts. The seriousness of the beginning of the Bach _Passacaglia_ cannot cause us to forget that calm entrance, in its very reserve so sad, of the Passacaglio (_sic_) of Buxtehude (ed. Spitta, No. I, p. 1): [Music] or the profound melancholy of the commencement of the _Ciacona_ (ibid., No. II, p. 6): [Music] The majority of the details of the Passacaglia, moreover, establish its relationship to the two works which we have just cited. For example, the broken chords (beginning with the 113th measure), which remind us of the following (_Ciacona_, p. 10): [Music] Also the rapid progressions accompanied by solid chords (_Ciacona_, p. 11): [Music] finally the sixteenth-notes in triplets (_Passacaglio_, p. 4). The idea of joining a fugue to the Passacaglias was also derived from Buxtehude, who united a _chaconne_ and a fugue (_ibid._, No. V).