Figured bass

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Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of musical notation in which numerals and symbols indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to the bass note they are placed above or below. Figured bass is closely associated with basso continuo, a historically improvised accompaniment used in almost all genres of music in the Baroque period, though rarely in modern music.

Other systems for denoting or representing chords include[1] plain staff notation, used in classical music; Roman numerals, commonly used in harmonic analysis;[2] macro symbols, sometimes used in modern musicology; the Nashville number system; and various names and symbols used in jazz and popular music.

Basso continuo[edit]


The makeup of the continuo group is often left to the discretion of the performers, and practice varied enormously within the Baroque period. At least one instrument capable of playing chords must be included, such as a harpsichord, organ, lute, theorbo, guitar, regal, or harp. In addition, any number of instruments which play in the bass register may be included, such as cello, double bass, bass viol, or bassoon. The most common combination, at least in modern performances, is harpsichord and cello for instrumental works and secular vocal works, such as operas, and organ for sacred music. Typically performers match the instrument families used in the full ensemble: including bassoon when the work includes oboes or other winds, but restricting it to cello and/or double bass if only strings are involved. Harps, lutes, and other handheld instruments are more typical of early 17th-century music. Sometimes instruments are specified by the composer: in L'Orfeo (1607) Monteverdi calls for an exceptionally varied instrumentation, with multiple harpsichords and lutes with a bass violin in the pastoral scenes followed by lamenting to the accompaniment of organo di legno and chitarrone, while Charon stands watch to the sound of a regal.

The keyboard (or other chording instrument) player realizes a continuo part by playing, in addition to the indicated bass notes, upper notes to complete chords, either determined ahead of time or improvised in performance. The figured bass notation, described below, is a guide, but performers are also expected to use their musical judgment and the other instruments or voices as a guide, and experienced players often incorporate motives found in the other instrumental parts. Modern editions of such music usually supply a realized keyboard part, fully written out for a player, in place of improvisation. With the rise in historically informed performance, however, the number of performers who improvise their parts, as Baroque players would have done, has increased.


Figured bass notation[edit]



Contemporary figured bass may be summarized as follows:

For diatonic triads:

  • root position = blank or 5
  • 1st Inversion = 6 or 6
  • 2nd Inversion = 6

For 7th chords:

  • root position = 7
  • 1st Inversion = 6
  • 2nd Inversion = 4
  • 3rd Inversion = 2 or 4



{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 6/4 \clef bass << { c1 } \figures { < 6 4 >1 } >> }


In cases where the numbers 3 or 5 would normally be understood, these are usually left out. For example:

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \clef bass << { \cadenzaOn c1 b, g, } \figures { < _ >1 < 6 > < 7 > } >> } is equivalent to

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \clef bass << { \cadenzaOn c1 b, g, } \figures { < 5 3 >1 < 6 3 > < 7 5 3 > } >> } and both imply the following chords

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \clef bass \cadenzaOn <c e g>1 <b, d g> <g, b, d f> }

although the performer may choose which octave to play the notes in and will often elaborate them in some way rather than play only chords, depending on the tempo and texture of the music.



{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 6/4 << { <e' a'>2 <e' g'> } \new Staff { \clef bass { c1 } } \figures { < 6 >2 < 5 > } >> }


{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 6/4 \clef bass << { c2 b, } \figures { \bassFigureExtendersOn < 6 >2 < 6> } >> }




{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 4/4 \clef bass << { e1 c } \figures { < _+ >1 < 6- _- > } >> }

is equivalent to this:

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 4/4 \clef bass <e gis b>1 <c ees aes> }


Alternatively, a cross placed next to a number indicates that the pitch of that note should be raised by a semitone (so that if it is normally a flat it becomes a natural, and if it is normally a natural it becomes a sharp). A different way to indicate this is to draw a bar through the number itself. The following three notations, therefore, all indicate the same thing (that A should be played even though A would normally be played in this key signature):

{ \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \time 4/4 \key c \minor \clef bass << { c1 c c } \figures { < 6! >1 < 6\+ > <6\\> } >> }


Example of Figured Bass in context. Taken from Beschränkt, ihr Weisen, by J.S. Bach (R. 47/69). About this sound Play 








As part of the new galant style in the mid-18th century, with its emphasis on lighter and more varied textures, orchestral music dispensed with the basso continuo, and solo-with-accompaniment textures increasingly featured fully written-out accompaniments. By the second half of the 18th century, figured bass was almost entirely eliminated, except in sacred choral music, where it lingered until well after 1800: Beethoven's Mass in C major (1807), for example, has a figured bass part.

Many composers and theorists of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries wrote how-to guides to realizing figured bass, including Gregor Aichinger, Filippo Bonaffino, Friedrich Erhard Niedt, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Georg Philipp Telemann, C.P.E. Bach, and Michael Praetorius.

Contemporary uses[edit]

It is also sometimes used by classical musicians as a shorthand way of indicating chords (though it is not generally used in modern musical compositions, save neo-Baroque pieces). A form of figured bass is used in notation of accordion music; another simplified form is used to notate guitar chords. Today the most common use of figured bass notation is to indicate the inversion, however, often without the staff notation, using letter note names followed with the figure, for instance, if the harmony were a C major, with the bass note a G, it would be written \mbox{C}_4^6; with an E in the bass, it would be written \mbox{C}_6 (this is different from the Jazz notation, where a C6 is the chord C-E-G-A, i.e., a C major with an added 6th degree). The symbols can also be used with Roman numerals in analyzing functional harmony, a usage called figured Roman; see chord symbol.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Benward, Bruce; Marilyn Nadine, Saker (2003), Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I (Seventh ed.), [Place missing]: Mcgraw-Hill, p. 77, ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0 .
  2. ^ Schoenberg, Arnold (1983), Structural Functions of Harmony (Seventh ed.), London: Mcgraw-Hill, pp. 1–2 .

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]