A request that often arrives in my inbox is: could you demonstrate the art of basso continuo improvisation? Well, lets start by explaining what it is. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was customary in ensemble music to notate certain numbers and figures above the bass line, which gave a keyboardist and/or a plucked string player the opportunity to improvise chords and polyphony, thus filling out the harmonies in the score. This is known as basso continuo (or thoroughbass in England, Bezifferten Baß in Germany, and basse-continuë in France). In the case of Bach and his milieu, this art was practised in four and even five voices. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that: yes, dear listener, people improvised polyphony and counterpoint! So, as an example, Ill play the bass line from the second movement of Bachs trio sonata from The Musical Offering (BWV 1079), and then Ill repeat it with a conjectural improvisation based on how I think Bach would have done it. Of course, every performance is different and is based on whimsy and fantasy as much as on whats implied in the parts. Note: THIS NEEDS TO BE WATCHED IN FULL TO GET THE POINT.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:38:40 +0000
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