# Books in the style of "Continuo playing according to Handel"?



## Pathway Eleven (9 mo ago)

(Hope this is the right forum for this)
It’s hard to describe the satisfaction that comes when studying and finally realizing the figured bass exercises written by Handel. However the more I progress in the exercises (with David Ledbetter’s excellent commentary) the sooner I realize I’m reaching its final pages.
So I tried looking around for other follow-up books to continue my self-study, but couldn't find any guide-book that offers the same excellent work-flow, which goes something like:

Exercise piece followed by short explanation → realization of the piece at the end of the book to use as a reference point/further explanation if you got lost somewhere → move on to slightly more difficult piece that expands on what you’ve already learned.

I realize I’m not the first person to ask this sort of question, however when I reviewed other answers I found some books were missing features that I surmise are important:

1) There are realizations for each of the practice pieces to use as a reference point*
2) You spend more time playing than you do studying (preferring to teach you the principles through music rather than text whenever possible)
3) The exercises aren’t just bland three bar exercises but musical pieces in of themselves
4) Tiered exercises that slowly get more complicated and nuanced (ideally starting from the basics)
5) Commentary on techniques, particularities and playing styles according to the time period that are not necessarily reflected in the sheet music

I marked 1) with * because this is a necessity for me, all others are preferences (I'm not yet confident in my abilities to not feel the need to refer to realizations).

If no book offers realizations to refer to, is it reasonable to study from pieces that feature figured bass, and when I want a reference point I can use the realizations of other performers?
And if I might add, can I please get some referrals to pieces that feature figured bass?

Also I am aware of the superb site Welcome to Partimenti.org edited by Robert Gjerdingen, however I couldn't always find realizations for each piece/rule-book; perhaps I missed something.

Thank you for taking an interest.


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