Thanks to Amalia Weinberg, who brought up this subject a few weeks ago. Here is some background on both the music, by John Walsh, and the terms "ground" and "division."
First, the score is available here:
The Division Flute
From the Wiki article:
The term 'Flute' at this date in England referred to the instrument known today as the recorder (Ger. Blockfloete), as opposed to the transverse or 'German' flute.
Division in music refers to a type of ornamentation or variation common in 16th and 17th century music [1] in which each note of a melodic line is "divided" into several shorter, faster-moving notes, often by a rhythmic repetition of a simple musical device such as the trill, turn or cambiata on each note in turn, or by the introduction of nonchord tones or arpeggio figures.
The word was used in this sense to describe improvised coloratura ornamentation as used by opera singers of the day, but it made a ready way of devising variations upon a theme, and was particularly cultivated in the form of the "division on a ground" - the building of successively higher and faster parts onto a repeating bass-line. Examples of "divisions on a ground" were written by, among others, John Jenkins and Christopher Simpson[2]. Simpson gives a lengthy explanation of the art of free improvisation over an ostinato bass-line in his book The Division Viol.
And from a related article from Wikipedia on ostinato:
In music, an ostinato (derived from Italian: "stubborn", compare English: obstinate) is a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in itself. Strictly speaking, ostinati should have exact repetition, but in common usage, the term covers repetition with variation and development, such as the alteration of an ostinato line to fit changing harmonies or keys.
As a very accessible frame that allows improvisation, the ostinato was heavily used in the Baroque epoch. For about a century and a half (starting around 1770), the technique was almost abandoned.
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