Skip to content
EntityQ724321· pop 37· linked from 987 articles

thoroughbass

Sign in to save

Also known as continuo

technique of improvisation and accompaniment, common in Baroque music

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
accompaniment
Has parts of class
arpeggio
Show 3 more facts
notation
figured bass
instrumentation
harpsichord
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A harpsichordist and a bassist play continuo for a small group of singers (the solo ensemble of the Kreuznacher Diakonie Choir [de]).

Basso continuo is a harmonic musical structure, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), that generally consisted of a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the continuo part are called the continuo group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “thoroughbass” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.