Figured Bass Accompaniment in Europe

Edited by Livio Ticli

Book cover: Figured Bass Accompaniment in Europe

Extent: 424 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Eighteenth-Century Studies, Music & Performing Arts

Series: Musica Incarnata

Series volume number: 2

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(February 2024)

ISBN: 9782503608518

Price: $150.00

In stock

Sixteen internationally-renowned scholars map the figured bass accompaniment in Europe through a wide timespan: from the early-seventeenth-century Germany to late continuo realisations by Johannes Brahms and Robert Franz.


At the very end of his new and charming chapter included in this volume, Thomas Christensen sensuously claims that for each generation, figured bass has something new to say, though it rarely gives up its secrets without a fight. This book, therefore, attempts to do justice to the fight lead by sixteen internationally-renowned scholars who ventured mapping the figured bass accompaniment in Europe through a wide timespan: from the early-seventeenth-century Germany to late continuo realisations by Johannes Brahms and Robert Franz. The volume also addresses several issues such as different ways to sketch and write extensively the instrumental accompaniment, its rendition into practice and how to teach and apply formulas for improvising (and realising) a contrapuntal texture over the bass. For the first time, counterpoint, basso continuo and partimento are put into dialogue, overcoming terminological antinomies and underlining the points of continuity amongst different accompaniment practices in France, Germany, England and Spain for over three centuries. Case studies shed some lights on accompaniment of specific instruments such as cello and guitar.

  • Edited by Livio Ticli