A ‘ground bass’ is a short bass line (usually 4 to 8 bars long) which is repeated constantly throughout a piece. While the bass stays the same, the melodic voices develop and change above it. A good ground bass piece will have a clear, simple bass line, with imaginative development of the upper parts. Passacaglia and Chaconne are alternative names for this type of piece.
The part Continuo: An independent bass line, usually in a keyboard instrument like a harpsichord. Also called basso continuo.
Figured bass: Usually played by a harpsichord. Has numbers underneath the bass. String quartet: 2violins, viola, cello.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.
The single most important thing to remember about figured bass is that the bass line shows you the lowest note, and that you must build a chord upwards from that note. Never, ever write a chord note which is lower than the bass note.
Each number tells you the interval above the bass note which you need to write, in order to create a chord. We will write all our chords as 4-note chords, creating 4 independent voices – soprano, alto, tenor and bass.
Figured bass is written underneath the bass line. (Sometimes a bass line with figures is called a "continuo".) The numbers in figured bass tell you what chord to build up from the bass note, and in which inversion.
string quartet :The string quartet is one of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music with most major composers, from the late 18th century onwards, writing string quartets.
Baroque opera :
The baroque era (and for this we are taking the period from around 1600 to the death of Handel in 1759) saw both the birth of opera as a musical form and its growth into perhaps the most enduring musical genre.
a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and with orchestral overtures and interludes,
