what does continuo mean? - Music: Practice Theory Stack Exchange 'Continuo' is thorough bass or more commonly figured bass, or basso continuo At the start of the 17th C, unaccompanied choral music was declining, and vox accompanied by plain chords taking over This style lasted for a good two hundred years
When realizing a basso continuo, should the realization avoid . . . Many continuo manuals (both historical sources and modern treatises) are careful to point out that a continuo realization should be contrapuntally correct, i e , one ought to avoid parallel fifths and octaves in the extemporized parts, as well as other voice-leading mistakes (With some amount of license allowed in very full-voiced textures )
Why was basso continuo not widely used after the baroque period? The basso continuo was a standardized sort of accompaniment, typically given a bass line and chord symbols only and filing in the chords ad libitum J S Bach was already beginning to exert more control, writing keyboard parts out instead of leaving it up to the performer to improvise
The Basso Continuo and the Jazz Rhythm Section The Baroque equivalent of the jazz rhythm section was the basso continuo The term refers to a continuous bass line in a Baroque piece, with harmonies improvised on top of it Question: Did the Basso Continuo of the Baroque eventually "evolve" into the Jazz Rhythm section, making it the "great-great-great grandson" of the Basso Continuo?
performing - Replacing Viola and Basso continuo - Music: Practice . . . Historically, basso continuo was always played with a harpsichord or organ or lute or theorbo for the continuo, and a bowed string bass instrument or bass reed instrument for the basso At least one chordal instrument is mandatory for basso continuo; added to that, if available, is a bass monophonic instrument
Help understanding basso continuo in Vivaldis La Folia In the original publication of the piece, the cello part is a "cello continuo" part and includes figured bass The 'La Folia' sonata is number 12 in Vivaldi's Twelve Trio Sonatas, Op 1 (SOURCE: Wikipedia) The score can be seen on IMSLP A portion is shown in the image below
notation - Music: Practice Theory Stack Exchange A continuo instrument (harpsichord, or organ, theorbo, or lute) also plays the bass line in unison with the bass instrument, but the continuo player also improvises a chord accompaniment (in the right hand if you are talking about harpsichord or organ) The player is expected to figure out their own notes and chord voicings, observing and
harmony - How to realize a figured bass - Music: Practice Theory . . . Basso continuo realization can vary from simple harmonization to extensive explorations of harmony and counterpoint A “full accompaniment” may require as many notes as the fingers can accommodate, and in such cases the rules forbidding consecutive fifths and the like are waived, except as they apply to the two outside (bottom and top) parts
baroque period - Why does the conductor also play harpsichord when . . . (A popular arrangement in a church, for example, was to put the orchestra near the altar (perhaps with a harpsichord continuo), and the soloists in the organ loft, or vice versa ) Another consideration could be this: since in most baroque compositions the continuo plays more or less constantly, it must be pretty tiring for one harpsichordist to