Basso continuo

Basso continuo is a Baroque accompaniment practice in which bass instruments play a written bass line while a chordal instrument supplies harmonies, often guided by figures.

Figured bass: A notation system that places numbers beneath bass notes to indicate the harmonies and intervals to realize. Its figures guide the chordal instrument’s realization of the continuo bass.
Basso ostinato: A short bass pattern repeated throughout a musical passage or composition. Unlike continuo, it is a compositional pattern rather than an accompaniment practice.
Baroque opera: Opera composed and performed during the Baroque period, roughly from 1600 to 1750. Continuo supports recitative and helps sustain dramatic pacing between arias.
Florentine Camerata: A group of musicians and intellectuals in late-sixteenth-century Florence who discussed reviving ancient Greek drama. Its experiments with expressive solo song helped create the setting for continuo accompaniment.
Realization (music): The performance of an incomplete musical notation by supplying details left to the performer. Continuo players turn the bass and figures into sounding chords.
Harmony: The study and practice of combining notes simultaneously to form chords and chord progressions. Continuo realization turns implied bass harmonies into sounding chords.
Recitative: A vocal style that follows speech-like rhythms and advances dramatic or narrative action. Continuo accompaniment commonly underpins recitative in Baroque opera and oratorio.
Monody: A style of accompanied solo song that emerged around 1600, emphasizing a single melodic line over bass support. Basso continuo supplied the harmonic foundation for monodic singing.
Harpsichord: A keyboard instrument whose strings are plucked by quills when keys are pressed. It commonly provides continuo chords with a clear, sustaining rhythmic foundation.
Interval (music): The distance in pitch between two musical notes. Figured-bass numbers specify intervals above each bass note.

Linked from 41 pages