Improvising an Allemande over a Romanesca Bass: Baroque Practice

This video features pianist Francesco Tropea performing a live piano improvisation of a baroque-style suite consisting of five movements: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, demonstrating the characteristic dance forms and musical structures of the Baroque period through spontaneous musical creation.

The four core dances of the baroque suite each have distinct characteristics: The allemande (German origin) is the first dance with moderate tempo in 4/4 time and a serious, dignified mood. The courant (French origin) means 'running' and features fast, lively music in 3/2 or 3/4 time with an emotional, pleasant character. The sarabande (Spanish origin) is the slowest dance in 3/4 time with a distinctive halting sound from emphasis on the second beat. The gig (English origin) is the final dance with compound time (6/8 or 3/8), fast and lively tempo, and often features contrapuntal texture with multiple simultaneous melodies. These dances were originally written in binary form (A-B structure) and provided the foundation for the entire suite structure.

This extensive section covers the complete art of Baroque suite composition, emphasizing that every respected Baroque composer wrote at least one suite with their own dances. The instructor details the importance of studying each dance's unique characteristics—including rhythms, phrasing, style, and character—to avoid common pitfalls like writing an allemande that sounds like a gavotte. The complete suite structure includes alamand, sarabande, minuet, gavotte, bourrée, French courante, Italian corrente, pipiér, lure, French jig, and Italian jig. The recommended learning methodology involves first studying compositional elements, then analyzing real examples from composers like Bach and Handel, and finally composing two full suites—one in B-flat major and one in B-minor—to explore both major and minor modes. Essential figuration techniques are demonstrated including opening runs where the top voice descends into the bass, resolving on full chords, arpeggios playing chord tones sequentially, and transposing patterns to different keys to create variety.

The standard order of movements in a Baroque suite is: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and optional dances (Minuet, Gigue). The Prelude served practical purposes: tuning pieces and helping instrumentalists work out nerves. The music was meant to sound free and improvised, with many rubato elements. The Toccata is an early form of unmeasured instrumental music that eventually evolved into the prelude. Dance music is composed specifically for dancing with clear rhythmic patterns. Stylized dance music (like Bach's suites) is meant to be listened to rather than danced to, even though it uses dance rhythms. Bach and Vivaldi were contemporaries who died in the same year. Bach composed Baroque suites with incredible complexity, making them showpieces for virtuosic performance. Vivaldi's music is generally easier to ornament and practice with. When practicing ornamentation, performers should start by adding as many ornaments as possible, even to the point of sounding absurd, then back off to find balance. The Sarabande is particularly good for this practice because it is technically easy and allows for extensive ornamentation.

A Baroque suite is a multi-movement instrumental composition typically consisting of four to six movements. The standard movements include Allemande (a moderate tempo dance in duple meter), Courante (a lively dance in triple meter), Sarabande (a slow, stately dance in triple meter), and Gigue (a fast, lively dance in compound meter). This particular suite includes five movements: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Sarabande double, and Gigue.

The partimento method is a historical approach to learning baroque composition using a figured or unfigured bassline from which all voices are composed at the keyboard. This method teaches through active playing rather than abstract theory, covering intervals, consonances, dissonances, bass motions, and harmonic patterns. The curriculum includes two-voice composition, three-voice writing with melodic independence, proper cadences, rule of the octave, galant schemata, suspensions, and key modulation. Students practice with 184 partimenti across multiple keys and original works by Fux and Durante.

When playing new parts upon a bass creates new compositions, the bass line should be called partimento. Partimenti became a standard way of teaching harmony, counterpoint, and improvisation until the 19th century. Their roots can be found at the beginning of the 17th century. In Catholic Italy, organists had a big role in liturgy and were expected to supply music in different parts of ceremonies, either free or based on chant melodies, in necessary length according to the moment. Adriano Banchieri's 'l'organo suonarino' from 1605 supplied bass lines with special signs as guides for beginner organists to start and finish in the right note and not confuse singers. The concept of supplying a bass line with or without figures, with few or many hints for realization, is the basic idea behind partimenti.

Partimento training progresses systematically from basic exercises to sophisticated counterpoint. Book One teaches scales and cadences using simple partimenti with quarter and half notes, where students learn to realize scalar passages with thick chordal textures (three to five voices) without prohibiting parallel octaves or fifths—the goal is acquiring familiarity with characteristic sonorities on each scale degree. Book Two focuses entirely on suspensions—foreign notes prepared by consonances that resolve, typically downward (95% of cases). The key progression follows a carefully designed sequence moving upward through G major, A minor, B minor, C major, D, and concluding with B flat and E flat majors, always choosing the least complicated key at each step. A distinctive feature of Neapolitan pedagogy is expecting multiple good solutions per exercise rather than single answers, with research showing some students created over 30 versions of a single bass line. When a bass note lasts longer than one beat, students can add dissonance or perform position changes, with advanced techniques like 'horizontalization of dissonance' involving omitting chord members to avoid parallel octaves while creating interesting motion.

This section introduces the Partimento method as the primary training technique used by musicians in the 17th and 18th centuries. The instructor explains that Partimento is a figured or unfigured baseline from which you compose all other voices at the keyboard. This method is based on active learning through playing at the keyboard or on polyphonic instruments like harp, guitar, or lute. The method uses no Roman numerals or abstract theory, instead using intervals, consonances, dissonances, bass motions, and harmonic patterns that are played, embodied, and absorbed with fingers and mind. The Partimento method is the second major level of the Musicus Practicus Baroque Path, divided into 12 levels covering topics from two-voice composition to advanced cadences, chromatic patterns, suspensions, and modulation. The course includes 184 partimenti for practice in multiple keys and original partimenti by Fux and Durante.

This segment explains the concept of improvisation in partimento and the multiple solutions possible for each bass line. The host explains that partimenti are notated with empty staves on top because there is not one solution but five, six, or seven possible realizations. The whole idea of partimento is to learn to play and make realizations in many different directions while following what the piece is trying to teach. Students must find correct realizations that are 'nice' and follow the pedagogical intent. The host demonstrates this by playing a partimento and showing different starting positions, explaining that the choice of starting position affects whether lines are descending or ascending and which voice has the best melodic qualities. The host emphasizes that using rests in the realization is excellent for creating individuality of voices in the Leo tradition.

Baroque musicians were expected to improvise and compose as well as perform written works. The video demonstrates how studying Bach's inventions develops improvisation skills by teaching students to invent musical ideas and develop them systematically. This compositional thinking is fundamental to understanding Baroque musical language and creating original musical expressions.

The standard order of movements in a Baroque suite is: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and optional dances (Minuet, Gigue). The Prelude served practical purposes: tuning pieces and helping instrumentalists work out nerves. The music was meant to sound free and improvised, with many rubato elements. The Toccata is an early form of unmeasured instrumental music that eventually evolved into the prelude. Dance music is composed specifically for dancing with clear rhythmic patterns. Stylized dance music (like Bach's suites) is meant to be listened to rather than danced to, even though it uses dance rhythms. Bach and Vivaldi were contemporaries who died in the same year. Bach composed Baroque suites with incredible complexity, making them showpieces for virtuosic performance. Vivaldi's music is generally easier to ornament and practice with. When practicing ornamentation, performers should start by adding as many ornaments as possible, even to the point of sounding absurd, then back off to find balance. The Sarabande is particularly good for this practice because it is technically easy and allows for extensive ornamentation.

This video features pianist Francesco Tropea performing a live piano improvisation of a baroque-style suite consisting of five movements: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, demonstrating the characteristic dance forms and musical structures of the Baroque period through spontaneous musical creation.

Baroque style improvisation can be mastered by combining three key patterns: Romanesca (a foundational stepwise pattern in minor keys), Premiere/printer (used for cadences), and sequences (for staying in the same key or modulating). The instructor demonstrates playing the rule of the octave in G minor as a foundation, then shows how to play Romanesca stepwise in minor keys as the first element of improvisation. This systematic approach transforms what seems difficult into an accessible skill through pattern combination.

This concluding segment represents the complete performance of a Baroque suite, demonstrating authentic interpretation practices including appropriate ornamentation, tempo relationships, and dynamic contrasts typical of the period. The final movement's resolution and subsequent audience applause illustrate the communicative power of historically informed performances that capture the artistic intentions of composers like Johann Christian Schieferdecker from the early 18th century.