For the Advanced pianist Formal unity in large numbers of Baroque musical compositions was often provided by the repetition of a pattern in the basso continuo. These repeated bass patterns are called ostinato or ground bass. An important class of ostinato bass occurs in the instrumental works called the passacaglia and chaconne, beginning in Spain late in the 16th Century.

Passacaglia for Solo Piano draws on this formal history. The ostinato is a five-measure pattern in triple meter consisting of all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, each occurring only once. The work is structured around the seventeen consecutive repetitions of this theme, some of which are transposed, inverted, or both. The second and third repetitions introduce two countermelodies which are also repeated.

The work is dedicated to Dr. Brenda Wristen who premiered it at Texas Tech University in December, 1999.