The Performance of Italian Basso Continuo by GIULIA NUTI

Author:GIULIA NUTI
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Chapter 4

The Eighteenth Century

Le regole d’accompagnamento – Rules of Accompaniment in the Eighteenth Century

Commonly continuo players performed from an unfigured bass; by the end of the seventeenth century, often not even the part that was being accompanied was included. The need to guide performers in their harmonic and stylistic choices resulted in the regole d’accompagnamento, which begin to appear at the beginning of the eighteenth century. These are a specific set of rules that explain where, rhythmically, chords should be placed according to the movement of the bass, and instructions on how unfigured basses should be harmonized.

These rules of accompaniment, much referred to in sources of the time, are most fully expounded in print by Geminiano Sangiovanni in his Primi ammaestramenti della musica figurata,1 a detailed and comprehensive treatise with much emphasis on practical issues. Francesco Gasparini too sets out these rules of accompaniment in Chapter IV of his L’armonico pratico al cimbalo,2 but the rules are not labelled or separately considered as such; they fall under the chapter heading ‘Osservazioni sopra i moti per salire, e prima di grado’. While some parts of Sangiovanni are taken almost word for word from Gasparini’s L’armonico pratico, which might explain the lesser fame of Sangiovanni’s treatise, the rules of accompaniment are presented there in a particularly clear manner.

In manuscript form the regole can be determined from three main sources. Alessandro Scarlatti teaches the regole, entitling them Per accompagnare il cembalo, ò organo, ò altro stromento.3 Various, and slightly differing, copies of the manuscript survive, showing how widespread was his teaching.4 The Regole accompagnar sopra la Parte N.1 d’autore incerto,5 an anonymous manuscript hereafter referred to as Roma N.1, is another main source. The regole are also discussed in anonymous manuscripts on basso continuo held in the Museo internazionale e Biblioteca della musica di Bologna.6

Precisely because so much Italian music is not figured, or is only partially figured, a knowledge of these rules is vital and their application in performance is essential. Performers today have even greater need to practise ways of harmonizing this music than had musicians wholly familiar with the musical sounds and conventions of the time; that within the regole is explained both the placing of chords within the bar and the harmonies expected to be heard when only an unfigured bass is given makes the regole one of the most important sources of stylistic information available.

The regole d’accompagnamento refer to a chordal accompaniment; they are not general rules for the accompaniment of the voice or instrument, rather they are general rules for the accompaniment of the bass line itself. Already a very specific approach to basso continuo is apparent; the skill lies in knowing how to accompany the left-hand bass line, rather than being concerned about the manner of accompaniment of another part (see p. 123 for how this skill developed). Its method of teaching is that used throughout the eighteenth century, giving the roots above which divisions and ornaments can be played (pp. 87–112), yet even performing according to the the regole alone results in a strong and beautiful style of accompaniment.

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