Realizing Continuo

• Dec 19, 2024 - 19:13

I'm working on some baroque music, and I'm finding a lot of resources on how to read continuo, but not a lot on how to realize it. For example, when the continuo has a melodic line, do I treat every 16th note as a chord root? That seems a bit much. Are there any resources or guidelines for when to just hold a harmony instead of relying on numbers with suspension lines? The example given is kinda what I'm wondering about. The continuo is in parallel with the soloist for a time, but what do I do for a realized harmony here, if anything?

Another instance is in 6/8/ do I realize every 8th note, or just the dotted quarters?

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Wow! There's no way one can cover this in MuseScore forum post! So much depends on
1) The date, and nationality of the piece (different countries had different tastes.)
2) The instrument on which it's being realized: organ, harpsichord, piano(!), theorbo.
Some works, by some composers (Bach and Handel), are heavily figured; others--such as the one you cite here, not so much. I'm guessing it might be French, or maybe English.
Those measures in running 16ths would have most likely have one chord per dotted quarter. Often times, there will be an underscore line running until the next chord change, but you don't have that here, or any figurings at all.
The most important part about figured bass is that you are there for harmonic support: you should never overshadow or draw attention away from the soloist. Simpler is better.

In reply to by wfazekas1

You're right about this particular piece being French. It's by Louis de Caix d'Hervelois.

It's good to know that it's not just confusing, but not even entirely standardized across all of the repertoire. So it's not just a me issue.

I'll take the idea of the dotted quarter having the chord. But yeah, very little of the entire piece has underlined figured bass. And most of what is is suspension chords.

In reply to by wfazekas1

I'd agree with this ... a chord every 16th note would definitely be overkill, particularly since several of them are likely to be passing notes.

Realistically, the smallest note length to consider a change in chord would probably be an eighth note, but even that might be too fine a division depending on the piece's tempo. With that said, either a chord per dotted quarter or chords on a quarter note and the following eighth note (which would fit a "French" rhythmic style) should be fine.

Hi there!
I've been studying Continuo the last two years, I can share some info.
First, there are two families of Continuo Practice. The "Base" one, by that I mean the simplest one, is the French/English type. It takes all the figures resulting from the inversion of the Triad and Seventh chord. It also adds suspensions that resolve into the most basic figures. The book for learning this practice the best is Handel's Continuo Practice(His exercises for princess anna). The visual explanations are awesome for this.

My general understanding of studying for so long is this: French Romantics screwed up the way we learn music. They made a system (Function Theory) with rules that they imposed upon music (Baroque and Classic) that didn't use them.

This leads us onto the second family, the "Complete" set of figures. They are the result of merging the Italian and French sets into what we call the German one. This complete set was organized by Heinichen, in "Thorough-Bass according to Heinichen". This book has a LOT to learn. It teaches you to build arias by just looking at the interval, and finding an according group of figures to fill it, it carries the spirit of Bach's style even more than other treatises, even though he despised fugal writing(lol).
The book also has sections for free resolution and exchange of voices, and interpretation of unfigured basses, with rules for improvisation, and interpretation of diminution on the bass(What you need!).
Lastly, the books I recommend in order:

First, read this( https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.18.24.1/mto.18.24.1.schubert.html ). It won't make sense at first, but it will help you a lot for learning voice leading, avoiding parallels, etc.
Continuo Playing according to Handel (Has all the basic figures in easy partimentos, that lead to Partimento fugue in a gradual way. Must read)
18th Century Continuo Playing.(Christensen Jesper). Split into the middle, it compares the basic figures into French and German style, so you can start with the "easy" half, and progress. A LOT of visual examples, really good.
After getting a hand on the Style, you can start reading Italian treatises, like Fenaroli's and Durantes(super solid works, very easy to read)
Art of Partimento(Sanguinetti) and Harmony Counterpoint and Partimento(Job IJzerman). The first will help you understand what and where to go to learn composition(Partimenti.org is a godsend, lots of info), and has a compendium of 15 different figured bass authors resumed into 30 pages of rules, its genius; the second has a workbook you MUST see. Its fill in the blank, so you can find all the patterns in the bass and fill them accordingly (Thats how Mozart wrote full works on hours, by finding patterns and filling).
The last books are good too: Generalbass-Compendium by Hans Peter Weber is Excellent, a compendium of bass treatises rules in 50 pages, The art of Preluding by Remes has figured bass reductions of the WTC, good for finding patterns and voice leading tricks by the master himself, and John Mortensen's books on Improvisation and Improvising Fugue are awesome too.
In summary, the problem lies in reading texts that dont take into account the historic side and perspective of the composer. So books written after the 1800 are more easy to find, but are awful at teaching the practical side of music, only the theorical/analytical/systematic side. Thats why Arnold, Gauldin, Piston and Schoenberg won't help you. If you want to learn music from a period, find books from that period, surrounding the music you try to study, like Bach's Circle (Kirnberger(Not that good, Rameau style, but check his section on passing tones and syncopations, really unique), CPE Bach(Really good! Teaches you keyboard fingering in a consistent way))

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