ground bass

plural ground basses · alternative groundbass

1. countableuncountableentertainmentA constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in a piece.

   1 more example

   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.

   1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3

2. countableuncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ground, bass.

   Synonyms: basso ostinato