Realizing Continuo
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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Comments
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 Wow! There's no way one can… 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 You're right about this… by jbewley1994
I would say that "not even entirely standardized" assumes too much. Try "not standardized in the slightest" as a better description of the situation. Or "not even vaguely standardized". :-)
In reply to Wow! There's no way one can… 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.