Chromatic fantasia
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[edit] History
A chromatic fantasia is a specific form of fantasia (or fantasy or fancy) originating in sixteenth century Europe. In its earliest form, it is based on a chromatically descending tetrachord which arises naturally out of the dorian mode. Consequently the chromatic fantasia is almost invariably in d-minor even as late as Bach.
[edit] Some Early Examples
Among the earliest examples, are two celebrated lute pieces by John Dowland, the farewell and forlorn hope' fancies. These were obviously highly influential of Jan Pieterswoon Sweelinck whose own Fantasia Chromatica in many ways forms a link between the renaissance and the baroque.
[edit] Bach's chromatic fantasia
The chromatic fantasy, as a form, fell into neglect in the later seventeenth century. About a century after Sweelinck, J. S. Bach contributed the most famous of all examples of the form.
