Organ sheet music questions
Hey there. So right now I'm doing a big project for the fun of it: I'm transcribing the entirety of Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor. I ran into a problem though with interpreting what some markings mean in the organ part, and i'm hoping someone can help me. Below is a screenshot of the page. The organ part is the bottom, and is combined with vioncellos and contrabasses. The cellos and basses have the eight notes with the stems pointed down, as the organ line has the stems pointing up. On the fourth beat of the first measure in the line, the organ part disappears, and the numbers 5, 4, and natural 3 appear below the note. This continues for a while. Can someone explain to me what the numbers mean and how it relates to the organ and strings part? I'm not sure where to go from here.
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Comments
Could that be figured bass?
In reply to Could that be figured bass? by Jojo-Schmitz
That's exactly what it is.
A web search on that term ("figured bass") will turn up lots of info, so have fun with that :-). Meanwhile, the short answer: this was a type of notation commonly used in the Baroque era where you would just give an organist or other accompanist symbols indicating the harmonies and the player was expected to construct his own accompaniment from that. Not at all unlike what modern pop or jazz musicians do from chord symbols.
In reply to A web search on that term (… by Marc Sabatella
But there should be only one relevant hit: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/figured-bass
In reply to A web search on that term (… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you very much for your help. I understand how to do it now, and what I am writing pretty much perfectly matches the chords and rhythms on the organ in numerous recordings. Once again, thanks