Basso Continuo

A bass line and a few figures let players realise the harmonic frame on the spot.

Related

BaroqueConcerto GrossoHarpsichordCello

One bass line and a few figures let a keyboard player supply chords on the spot. Basso continuo moved the centre of Baroque music from stacked voices to a frame of bass and harmony.

Time and place

Italy and Europe, roughly 1600–1750. It emerged with monody and early opera and became standard in the chamber and church music of Corelli, Purcell and Bach.

What happened

A continuo group has two parts: a melodic instrument on the bass, such as cello, bassoon or bass viol, and a chordal instrument such as harpsichord, organ or lute. The score gives only the bass line and figures; the figures tell the player which intervals to add above. The player does not press keys as written but decides chords and voice-leading from the bass as it moves.

What changed

Harmony became an independent structural layer, and a composer could plan a whole movement from one bass. Accompanists turned from readers into co-creators, so the same work could have a different texture under different keyboard players. Continuo supported opera, cantata, concerto and sonata until it faded late in the eighteenth century. Figured-bass teaching also gave rise to the study of harmony.

Listen for the turn

Begin with Corelli's trio sonata, where an independent bass runs under two upper voices; then hear Purcell's trio sonata and how the figures keep the harmony upright; finally Bach's trio sonata, with flute and violin crossing above a bass that never lets go.

Related

This turn belongs to Baroque and connects Concerto Grosso, Harpsichord and Cello.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Continuo" — dates and terms checked, not quoted
• Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music (Oxford University Press) — narrative checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.