Category 2. Coordinate Spacing

Type 2. Presentation of basso continuo figuration.

Ordinarily, basso continuo figures can be placed directly beneath the note whose harmonization they reveal. There are, however, three classes of complications related to the placement of continuo figures:

• (1) they are often placed between notes to denote places where the harmony created by the parts is changing even though the continuo itself is stationary,
• (2) they are used in combinations of arbitrary vertical and horizontal extent, and
• (3) chromatic alterations were often indicated by slashes across figures, so that the number of figures in common use for creating composite figures is 15, and this does not exhaust all the aberrations of Baroque practice.

Ex. #9 illustrates the first problem type in Bars 43-47, the second type throughout (see especially Bars 48-51), and the third type in Bars 45 and 47. Errors in the original figures have been corrected with information in brackets.

Ex. #9. Handel's Ottone: "Bel labbro formato" from Act 1. This example was produced by Edmund Correia, Jr., using MuseData and its associated printing system.

[ Index | Previous Paragraph | Next Paragraph ]