Partimento Theory

The term intavolatura is used in the partimento tradition to refer to a fully written-out keyboard realization (on two staves). An important collection of intavolature is the so-called Parma Manuscript. It contains 24 keyboard realizations from the third book of partimenti by Fedele Fenaroli (1730–1818). See also disposizione. See also partimento. Select Bibliography Fenaroli, Fedele. METODO […]

In his book The Art of Partimento, Giorgio Sanguinetti gives the following general definition: “a partimento is a sketch, written on a single staff, whose main purpose is to be a guide for improvisation of a composition at the keyboard”(Sanguinetti (2012), p. 14). It can be provided with or without thoroughbass figures. See also partimento

A partimento diminuito is a partimento for which the composer provided one or more models/suggestions of how it can be realized. Those models were incipits —and thus quite short— and not necessarily referring to the first bar(s). The term first appears in the pedagogical oeuvre of the Neapolitan maestro Francesco Durante (1684–1755). In turn, one

In my previous three essays (Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise, Diatonic Moti del basso that Descend Stepwise and Chromatic Moti del Basso), I dealt with conjunct moti del basso, both diatonically and chromatically. The topic of this essay is disjunct moti del basso, which are characterized by a sequential progression: a model that consists of

In my previous two essays (Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise and Diatonic Moti del basso that Descend Stepwise), I dealt with the moti del basso that rise and descend stepwise. The topic of this essay is chromatic moti del basso, both rising and descending. There are 3 such basic bass progressions. Two of

In my essay Diatonic Moti del Basso that Rise Stepwise, I explain that each note of a diatonic ascending moto normally has minimum two sonorities per bass note. (There are of course alternative settings for the ascending RO with one sonority per bass note; see my essay The Rule of the Octave in Three Parts.)

While mastering the first four categories of the regole (cadences, the rule of the octave (RO), suspensions and modulations) was already equivalent to mastering a considerable part of the musical syntax, the assimilation of the moti del basso (or movimenti del basso) proved highly important to the eighteenth-century composer from a structural perspective. (For more

In my essay Suspensions in the Upper Voice(s), I explain how a chord on a bass note that lasts two beats can be enriched with an on-beat dissonance in one or two voices. In this essay, I will deal with suspensions in the bass. They are mostly set with a 4/2 sonority, to which the

Once the basic cadences (see my essay Cadences: The Basics), the rule of the octave (see my series of essays on this rule) and modulations were sufficiently trained, the partimento student embarked on the study of suspensions. He learned that suspensions could occur in the upper voices and in the bass, and that specific circumstances

In my essays The Rule of the Octave in Major According to Fenaroli and The Rule of the Octave in Minor According to Fenaroli, I deal with the rule of the octave, a means of knowing which chord to play on each note of a major and minor scale in the bass, both ascending and