figured bass realisation
The practice of reading figured bass numbers and improvising a complete keyboard accompaniment from them
In Depth
Figured bass realisation was the core skill of Baroque keyboard playing. The continuo player read a bass line with numbers indicating the harmonies, then improvised appropriate chords, voice leading, and sometimes countermelody in real time. The quality of realisation varied enormously — a skilled player added tasteful ornamentation and responsive accompaniment, while a poor one merely plunked chords. Modern performers of Baroque music study historical treatises to recreate this lost improvisatory art.
C.P.E. Bach wrote the definitive treatise on figured bass realisation in 1753, a book that Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven all studied carefully.