Passacaglia: Score
By Gary Fagan
Grade: 2.5
Item: 00-PR-0005932
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Description
An original passacaglia with the melody in the bass line, this piece will challenge your basses and provide opportunities for the orchestra to work on balance and listening down. (3:20)
Don't just read it, hear it, play along with it, and watch your students grow with it. In MakeMusic Cloud, Passacaglia: Score comes alive with professional accompaniment, adjustable tempo, and built-in practice tools that turn solo practice into real progress.
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Sample Audio
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Additional Details
Series:
Highland/Etling String Orchestra
Publisher:
Alfred Music
Page Count:
62
SKU:
00-PR-0005932
More about this title
About the Composer: Gary Fagan
Gary Fagan brings three decades of classroom experience to his work as a composer and arranger. A Maryland native, he spent 36 years directing bands in Albemarle County before transitioning to university supervision at James Madison University, where he also teaches arranging as adjunct faculty. His music has reached audiences at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the White House, and major state events.
Fagan's contributions to music education have been recognized with multiple honors, including the Central Virginia Outstanding Middle School Teacher award from the University of Virginia's Phi Delta Kappa chapter and the Outstanding Educator Award from the Virginia Governor's School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Active as a clinician, adjudicator, and performer with the Charlottesville Band, he holds degrees from Bridgewater College and James Madison University, and maintains memberships in ASCAP, the National Band Association, and Phi Beta Mu Bandmasters Fraternity.
Why we love this
Fagan inverts the typical passacaglia texture by placing the repeating ground bass in the double bass line, which immediately shifts your bass section into the spotlight while the upper voices weave the melody above. This reframing serves a pedagogical purpose that extends beyond novelty: your orchestra must listen acutely to lock onto the foundation beneath them, building the kind of ensemble awareness that transfers to every piece you rehearse afterward.
What to expect
The piece opens with a foundation that never wavers, yet the orchestra's dialogue above it creates motion and shape. There's a contemplative quality built into the passacaglia form, balanced by the engagement required to keep the texture in focus.
Who it's for
String orchestras at the intermediate level seeking a concert piece that builds listening skills and highlights the lower strings. Directors who want their bass players to feel essential to the ensemble's success will find this particularly rewarding.
How to get the most out of it
- Balance the bass line so it sits firmly but without drowning the upper voices; the passacaglia ground is the architecture of the piece, not the climax.
- Shape the melodic phrases in the upper voices with careful attention to how they land against the steady bass pulse, treating each iteration of the ground as a new compositional space.
- Mark entrances clearly in parts so everyone can track where they are within the repeating structure; this security allows musicians to listen outward rather than inward.
How to use it
Program this at a concert where it can stand alone as a featured work that demonstrates your orchestra's maturity in balance and listening. At under three and a half minutes, it pairs well with a longer contemporary piece or a standard repertoire selection, showing range without straining rehearsal resources.
Skills your students will build
- Listening for and maintaining a repeating melodic figure in the bass line across multiple iterations
- Balancing upper voice melody against a fixed harmonic foundation
- Ensemble intonation and blend when multiple voices share the same pitch range
- Following conductor through a formally structured piece that repeats but evolves
- Bass section confidence and solo character in an orchestral texture