Italy 1600-1650

Continuo basses of early 17th-century instrumental music are mostly unfigured. This does not make it easy to play a continuo accompaniment that is more or less in agreement with contemporary theory. Frescobaldi’s canzonas (1628 and 1634) are no exception here. This music is clearly not yet tonal but one cannot describe it as purely modal either, so how are we to know what chords a continuo player in Frescobaldi’s time would play? Or Frescobaldi himself for that matter? I believe that first of all we should examine Frescobaldi’s  works, both to find answers to theoretical questions as to matters of playing style and taste. (And this method works well for every composer). In the videos below I show an approach to the problem of playing from an unfigured bass by discussing some treatises of Frescobaldi’s period, and, in the third video (due in June), some ways to analyse Frescobaldi’s elaboration in keyboard canzonas and apply (if not imitate:-)) that to our realizations. The subject is divided over three video’s:

1. Introduction, Frescobaldi’s theoretical background. The Hexachords and the Two Sytems of Durus and Mollis
2. The Realization of an Unfigured Bass: Early Seventeenth-Century Harmony and Voice-leading According to the Treatises
3. Elaboration of a Continuo Realization: Early Seventeenth-century Playing Style