18th Century Continue Playing

In recent years, efforts to achieve interpretations that do justice to
the criteria of 'historical performance practice' have become de
rigeur in the world of early music. Not only has this affected the
ionstruments and performance techniques used by soloists, it also
impinges on the 'musical foundation': the accompaniment.
In his figured bass tutor Jesper Boje Christensen, a teacher at the
Schola Cantorum in Basle, shows readers how to produce stylistically
accurate figured bass realizations, wether written beforehand or
improvised in performance. He hastaken an unusual approach: the
various figured bass manuals of the early eighteenth century, by
Dandrieu, St. Lambert, Heinichen, Telemann and others, are clearly
organized and logically structured and contain practical tips for
playing from a figured bass. Christensen has put these sources
together and added comments and written-out examples of his own.
In this way his tutor not only shows how musicians played at the time,
but takes a further step of crucial importance: it succinctly
summarizes the way figured bass was taught and studied, thereby
creating models for players today.