ground bass

English

Alternative forms

  • groundbass

Noun

ground bass (countable and uncountable, plural ground basses)

  1. (music) A constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in a piece.
    • 1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] ‎[1], second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3:
      In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ground,‎ bass. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

See also

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