Unfigured bass

Unfigured bass

Unfigured bass is a technique of performance of historical music where the performer has a bass line but none of the guidance of a figured bass.Various rules of thumb are used to guess and anticipate the harmony with considerable success for many genres of music. Essentially the music, without the full specification of the figured bass, approaches harmonic perfection by listening and repetition. In the early baroque period published parts were as likely to be unfigured as figured leading to "interesting" clashes of harmony on a first reading.

(A note of warning: it is not always understood that some parts in the bass clef are not functionally a bass part; they may be a tenor part. Attempting to use a tenor part as an unfigured bass will result in continual clashes of harmony.)

External links

* [http://www.robertkelleyphd.com/scaledegrharm.htm Chords that the (major) Scale Degrees (in the bass) Can Imply] by Robert Kelley


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cavalier song — For the University of Virginia fight song, see The Cavalier Song. Cavalier song is a Jacobean and Carolinian genre of song, a later equivalent to Elizabethan lute song. Many of the surviving examples were part of a large scale lavish court… …   Wikipedia

  • Tonewood — is the term generally used to designate wood with recognized and consistent acoustic qualities when used in the making of musical instruments. The type of wood used on stringed instruments, such as a guitar, is a much debated factor contributing… …   Wikipedia

  • The Beggar's Opera — is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”