Passacaille (Spanish Dance)

Johnny Friedlaender

Johnny Friedlaender was born in Pless, Prussian Silesia (Germany) on June 21, 1912. From 1939 to 1943 he was interned in a series of concentration camps. After the war, the Friedlaenders returned to Paris in 1945, in 1947 he became a member of the Salon de Mai, and in 1950 he became a French citizen.

From his Paris atelier Friedlaender instructed younger artists who themselves went on to become noteworthy, among them Arthur Luiz Piza, Brigitte Coudrain, Rene Carcan, and Graciela Rodo Boulanger.

Friedlaender was commissioned in 1968-69 to do a series of 21 full sheet color ethings by Editeur Lublin Graphics, New York, all in edition of 95 signed and numbered impressions. "Passacaille" is the tenth image in the series and was done using 11 colors.

A"pasacaille" is a Spanish dance, done in a "serious nature" in 3/4 time and the use of a ground bass (a constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in the composition).