 What in the world? Connoisseurs of baroque music will be startled to read the title “music for solo figured bass”. It sounds topsy-turvy: a continuo player is an accompanist, not a soloist! That is why titles of music pieces normally only feature the term Basso continuo, or “thorough bass” after a preposition (as in “For flute and continuo”, “for violin with continuo”). In rare cases where no thorough bass accompaniment is desired, the composer makes it clear by specifying “without”: “senza basso accompagnato”. That is what Bach wrote at the top of the score of his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, to ensure that his contemporaries understood that these were works for violin alone – i. e. the “bottomless” genre, as opposed to partimenti, which are “topless”. Indeed, the Baroque age produced a respectable quantity of rather obscure pieces in which the continuo player remains alone. What is this genre’s origin, and what was its purpose? Ever since the Baroque period, the continuo player’s job was always somewhat different from that of other classical musicians. The latter have always done their best to reproduce a written part with the least amount of mistakes, striving towards an original interpretation with a personal touch. The continuo player, however, is constantly required to make up the music almost from scratch, based on a one-note bassline. Some of the notes have numbers on them: “figured bass” thus somewhat resembles modern-day jazz lead sheets with numbered chords. The numbers indicate what type of chord is required. But they don’t show in which region of the keyboard the continuo musician is supposed to play it, nor how rich it is supposed to be, and they indicate nothing at all in terms of voice-leading, motifs or adornments. In his Brief Thoroughbass School (1735) Johann Mattheson wrote : “What is visible in a figured bass part are numbered fundamental notes, suggesting invisible chords”. This music’s visible portion is thus rather limited. Nevertheless, the continuo player sitting at the harpsichord or at the organ usually manages to deliver impeccable accompaniment in terms of harmony and counterpoint, even adding a personal touch. All of this is due to well-trained musical reflexes – which lead us straight into the subject matter of this recording. In a period whose very name was defined by the bassus generalis principle, several Italian composers started providing their pupils with pieces in condensed form, designed to help them train their reflexes in tackling the special difficulties of continuo playing. No sparring partner was foreseen: no violin, no solo voice, no flute. This was no-frills music without any sort of distracting accompaniment: music for solo continuo, “topless” music. The partimento genre was born. …..(Excerpt from the original liner notes by Christian Rieger).
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