Partimento Realization: 5 Levels of Baroque Bass Harmonization

Improvisation is essentially composition happening in real-time, requiring knowledge of counterpoint and harmony. The missing link between counterpoint and harmony is called 'partimento' (or 'basso continuo'). Historically, continuo was perceived as extremely difficult, accessible only to the chosen few. Dondrio's method is ideal for beginners because it is user-friendly and pragmatic. The four pillars of musical learning are: (1) learning pieces with all information on the page, (2) basso continuo where you accompany a bass line with multiple voices, (3) partimento where you must provide the lines above the bass, and (4) improvisation with no base at all. The PAR principle (Preparation, Action, Resolution) describes the fundamental mechanisms of harmony. Thoroughbass is actually a school of composition, with great composers like Mozart and Haydn learning it at an early age.

Partimento is a historical keyboard technique from the 17th-18th centuries that involves improvising and realizing basso continuo lines. It was not originally designed for guitar, and applying it to guitar requires adaptation. The discovery of partimento for guitar began around 2011-2012, with Nicola Pignatiello being a pioneer. Partimento helps musicians understand how music works, making memorization easier because they can recognize variations on basic patterns. 19th century guitar music by composers like Giuliani, Sor, and Carcassi provides excellent examples of partimento principles, making their music natural and idiomatic.

This section explores the technical and theoretical foundations of historical improvisation. When realizing basso continuo, performers add parts above a given bass that should agree with other written parts and support the composition, with limited fantasy to avoid overshadowing the written music. Agostino Agazzari's 1607 treatise described how different instruments have different functions when playing basso continuo, warning against excessive creativity that could create 'a mess and confusion.' When playing new parts upon a bass creates new compositions, the bass line is called partimento, which became a standard teaching method for harmony, counterpoint, and improvisation until the 19th century. Adriano Banchieri's 1605 treatise supplied bass lines with special signs as guides for beginner organists. The section then covers the practice of 'Cantare super librum,' where additional voices were improvised upon a chant melody sung as cantus firmus, documented across Europe from the 15th to 17th centuries. The fantasia and ricercar genres, popular from the beginning of the 16th century, typically included fugal writing and sophisticated counterpoint. Santa Maria's 'Arte de Tañer Fantasia' treats 'playing' as including both composing and improvising. These genres were particularly valuable because they allowed exploration of contrapuntal technique without the strict requirements of setting text.

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.

Improvising partimento on the guitar is possible but has limitations. Easy partimento (first book of Fenaroli with no dissonances, using the Rule of the Octave and cadences) can be improvised. However, proper voice leading with complex bass movements is very difficult because the guitar has only one hand to manage both bass and treble notes. Guitarists typically improvise solutions at home, then write them down to create proper realizations. The guitar repertoire of the period had less bass movement than keyboard partimento, making improvisation more challenging. Using schemas provides a wider view of phrase structure, making it easier to create instrumental and effective music.

Fugue composition involves complex counterpoint with strict rules for subject entries and answer relationships. The instructor demonstrates fugue writing techniques including exposition, development, and stretto, showing how these contrapuntal forms demonstrate maximum independence among voices.

Fugal writing involves multiple independent melodic lines (subjects) entering at different times while maintaining harmonic unity. The ability to have different lines moving in totally different directions while sounding harmonically coherent requires sophisticated counterpoint skills. This technique creates complex, interwoven textures that reward careful listening and analysis.

Beyond basic fugue structure lie advanced techniques that expand counterpoint's possibilities. Stretto compresses the time between subject entries so dramatically that later statements overlap earlier ones, creating dense, simultaneous textures. This technique dramatically increases subject occurrences—while a typical fugue might feature eight subject statements, a stretto-rich fugue can contain over twenty. Four-voice fugues pose additional challenges, requiring performers to manage multiple independent lines with limited fingers. Bach's mastery of these techniques demonstrates how counterpoint can achieve extraordinary complexity while maintaining clarity. The use of multiple counter subjects and strategic modulation through episodes enables composers to explore vast harmonic and melodic territory within a single fugue structure.

This section covers polyphony (multiple melodies happening simultaneously) and counterpoint (the relationship between different voices). Key concepts include: (1) Polyphony is one of three main musical textures (along with homophony and monophony), (2) Fugues are polyphonic pieces that introduce a main subject in every voice, (3) Counterpoint has horizontal (intervals within a line) and vertical (intervals between lines) components, (4) Use thirds and sixths as consonant intervals, (5) Use contrary motion (one line up, one down) to avoid parallel octaves, fourths, and fifths, (6) Rhythm should either create consistent texture or get out of the way entirely, (7) Voices should take turns and interweave like hot potato with the pulse.

This segment explores counterpoint, fugue principles, and imitative polyphony. It demonstrates combining independent melodic lines according to voice-leading rules, creating complex interweaving textures. The video shows canons where themes are imitated at different times, and how consonance/dissonance relationships govern polyphonic writing. These techniques represent sophisticated approaches to multi-voice musical composition.

J.S. Bach taught composition primarily through thoroughbass at the keyboard, requiring students to first master four-part writing by adding middle voices to pre-existing outer voices before composing their own bass lines; this pedagogical approach is documented through historical sources including Bach's own doubling rules, the anonymous 'Precepts and Principles' exercises, C.P.E. Bach's 14 chorales, and the Sibley chorale book containing 227 chorales attributed to Bach's Dresden students around 1732-1740, which reveal that Bach's teaching involved a simpler keyboard-based style than previously assumed rather than the complex ornamented vocal chorales from his cantatas and passions.

Professor Derek Remeš's book 'The Art of Preluding' presents a revolutionary approach to analyzing Bach's 48 preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier by transposing all pieces to C major and A minor, then applying thoroughbass reduction to reveal underlying compositional patterns. This method, rooted in 18th-century music theory and Heineken's key relationship model, treats each prelude as a 'thoroughbass foundation' that can be understood through voice-leading patterns, sequences, and rhetorical figures. The analytical reduction process involves calibrating one's 'analytical lens' to identify patterns like the Rule of the Octave, cadences, and modulatory paths, making Bach's complex music more accessible to performers, improvisers, and composers. This approach transforms Bach's preludes from unique compositions into templates for understanding 18th-century compositional pedagogy.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the 15 two-part Inventions and 15 three-part Sinfonias (BWV 772-801) primarily as pedagogical tools to teach keyboard students not only technical skills but also compositional principles, including how to invent musical ideas and develop them systematically while achieving a cantabile (singing) manner of playing; these sophisticated small-scale masterpieces, originally compiled in Bach's Clavierbüchlein for his son Wilhelm Friedemann around 1720, reward intensive listening both individually and in sequence, demonstrating that brief works can elegantly outline distinct musical worlds.

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the Inventions and Sinfonias (BWV 772–801) in 1723 as a pedagogical collection for keyboard students. The work consists of 15 two-part Inventions and 15 three-part Sinfonias, each in a different key, designed to teach students how to play with clean two-voice counterpoint and later progress to three-part writing. Bach created these pieces for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, as part of a structured musical curriculum that included preludes, fugues, and ornamentation studies. When Bach applied for the position of Cantor in Leipzig, he submitted this revised manuscript to demonstrate his qualifications as a music educator, as teaching students at St. Thomas’s Choir School was a core duty of the role. The preface to the collection explicitly states its purpose: to guide lovers of the keyboard, especially those eager to learn, in playing two voices clearly, advancing to three obligato parts correctly and elegantly, developing inventiveness, executing musical ideas well, achieving a cantabile style of playing, and gaining a strong foundation in composition. The manuscript used in this recording was copied by H.G.M. Darnköhler around 1745–55, with Inventions on the left pages and Sinfonias on the right. The pieces are presented in the order of this historical edition, performed on a 1999 harpsichord by A. R. McAllister, modeled after J. H. Harraß.

Derek Remeš presents his book 'The Art of Preluding,' which deconstructs and reconstructs Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier preludes using a bass-focused analytical approach. The book applies thoroughbass principles to understand voice leading patterns, cadences, sequences, and the rule of the octave as modular building blocks for improvisation. Remeš transposes all preludes to C major or A minor to reveal underlying harmonic structures, emphasizing that 18th-century music should be understood through voice leading patterns rather than root-focused analysis. This approach, influenced by Heineken and C.P.E. Bach's treatises, treats music as a system of intervallic constellations that can be rearranged and inflected rhetorically, enabling performers to understand and recreate Bach's figuration patterns through a deeper comprehension of the underlying harmonic framework.