Figured bass

Ah, what a hoot...when I asked about figured bass, I figured (ha) there would be a neat, clean answer...but, it appears that there is some debate about just how it was done....and that's fine with me. And, let me also ask this: a few years ago I was chatting with a musician friend about that subject, and he suggested that perhaps musicians in that era had fake books, like jazz players, except instead of chords and melody lines, they had basslines written out, and improvised at their weddings/funerals/parties...could that have been? I occasionally teach the changes to Pachelbel's Canon to students, and it looks ideal to improvise over. It makes sense to me, cause I know musicians used to freelance back then as we do now...a Baroque fake book sounds like a nice idea...HHH
microstick.net

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Neil Haverstick" <microstick@m...> wrote:
>
> Ah, what a hoot...when I asked about figured bass, I figured (ha)
there
> would be a neat, clean answer...but, it appears that there is some
debate
> about just how it was done....and that's fine with me. And, let me
also ask
> this: a few years ago I was chatting with a musician friend about that
> subject, and he suggested that perhaps musicians in that era had
fake books,
> like jazz players, except instead of chords and melody lines, they had
> basslines written out, and improvised at their
> weddings/funerals/parties...could that have been? I occasionally
teach the
> changes to Pachelbel's Canon to students, and it looks ideal to
improvise
> over. It makes sense to me, cause I know musicians used to freelance
back
> then as we do now...a Baroque fake book sounds like a nice idea...HHH
> microstick.net

There are a lot of textbooks which explain *how* it was done in quite
some detail. Dover do a cheap reprint of F.T. Arnold's early 20th
century book which includes a comprehensive list of sources and many
extracts. Of course it depended on the taste & judgment of the
players, but there were many fairly solid rules. Debate about
6th-chords, inversions etc. is a sidetrack, in practice the notes to
be played do not depend on it.

As to *why*, it comes from a point in musical history when the
harmonically self-sufficient contrapuntal textures of the Renaissance
were abandoned in favour of one or more melodic lines above one or
more instruments playing a bass line. These alone typically would not
create a complete or full harmony. The keyboard (or lute/theorbo/etc.)
player would play chords more or less in the middle of the texture
completing the musical picture. The 'figures' apply to each bass note
and indicate the pitch classes that the composer would expect, or
equivalently the harmonic progression, since the chords were not
written out explicitly. Even when the written-out lines do constitute
a complete harmony, the 'continuo' contributes to the texture and rhythm.

There are lots of conventions, for example if there are no figures
then the root position chord on the bass with the given key signature
is to be played. It's not all so logical - for example '2' means the
6th and 4th and 2nd (or octave transpositions thereof) while '9' means
the 9th and 5th and 3rd.

Sometimes there are *unfigured* basses where the player can make up
the harmony ad hoc (hopefully in view of the melody lines) - there are
many rules for this too, for example when the bass rises a semitone
one takes the 6 and 3 on the first note and 5 and 3 on the second.

Many of the textbook rules of figured bass are in fact virtually
identical to so-called 'four part harmony'.

Once we have worked out what harmony appears at which point and how to
avoid possible four-part faux-pas, it is more or less open season on
voicing, dynamics, chordal figuration, etc. as long as one respects
the actual melodic parts. If there is no melody part at all then we
reach the situation mentioned by Neil, of improvisation above a
figured bass, or even above a non-figured one, which may be repeated
and become a set of variations or 'chaconne' or 'passacaglia'.

However, in the case of one or more melody lines above a bass, I would
say the main function would be chordal accompaniment rather than
melodic improvisation. Bach was, exceptionally, known for improvising
new melodic lines when playing continuo in other people's compositions.
~~~T~~~