Who wrote 'Cento partite sopra passacagli'?

• A. Giovanni Gabrieli
• B. Claudio Monteverdi
• C. Antonio Vivaldi
• D. Girolamo Frescobaldi

Answer: (D)

Understanding how a repeating bass pattern can be varied on the keyboard is the idea tested here. Cento partite sopra passacagli is a famous collection for keyboard that unfolds 100 variations over a single passacaglia ground bass. This format—a ground bass kept constant while the upper voice explores increasingly elaborate textures and figures—was a signature technique of Girolamo Frescobaldi, a central figure in early Baroque keyboard music. His skill lay in shaping rhythmic, harmonic, and ornamental variety atop a stable bass, turning a simple pattern into a coherent, expressive sequence. The other composers are known for different outputs: Gabrieli for large-scale choral and instrumental works in Venice, Monteverdi for madrigals and early opera, and Vivaldi for concertos and vocal music. So the composer who wrote this collection is Girolamo Frescobaldi.