# I have a question about baroque's written music



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I don't have much experience with it beyond what I have for keyboard by Bach. I know that in ye olden times that it was not uncommon to not have tempo, or trills and accents and what not. One thing I was surprised to find was that the two works that I followed today by Corelli and Vivaldi was that the harpsichord part was nowhere to be found. Was the harpsichord part always completely improvised? Or did the version of the two works I found online just lack that part? I was kind of looking forward to studying what the notes were that were being played.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

I believe typically they would only write out the bass line of the continuo part (the part played by the keyboard, usually a harpsichord, and bass instrument, often but not always cello) with a figured bass. The figured bass is just a series of numbers under the bass line that tells the keyboard player which notes should be in the upper voices. They keyboard player would improvise an accompaniment from that information.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

Now that I think on it I did see a continuo part, but I assumed it was just the cello/bass part.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Continuo can be keyboard, cello, bass, theorbo or any combination of these depending on what and how many other instruments are used.


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