Christian Mondrup wrote:
>
> David Raleigh Arnold wrote:
> >
> > =====Christian Mondrup:
> > > -------------------|------------------------------------
> > > -------------------|------------------------------------
> > > ----------B-L-A-H--|------------------------------------
> > > -------------------|------------------------------------
> > > -------------------|------------------------------------
> > >
> > > 6 9 8 5 6 (6) 7 ...
> > > 2 #
> > -------yhs
>
>===== initially let me point out that the above sample is not mine but
> =====produced by Dvid Chan at the start of the current thread.
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> > ^
> > |
> > This is a dominant seventh
> > chord in a key that would
> > normally make the chord
> > minor, e.g., D7 not Dm7
> > in key of C major.
>
>====== baroque thorough bass doesn't contain any functional harmony
> information. It's solely a way of representing the building of chords
> upon a bass note.
---------------------yhs
I did not accuse you of not knowing what figured bass was. I
simply
took note of the probability that *someone else* who had never
dealt
with it might take a seven with a sharp under it to mean a major
7th
interval, which would render my ensuing gravimen even more
incomprehensible to non-cognoscenti.
>
> > 8
> > ^
> > |
> > This was just not done. No 8's in
> > figured bass, ever.
>
> you're wrong. In this example (which is quite common) the digit 8 is
> there to signify the resolution of the preceding 9th dissonance
> represented by the digit 9. Similarily you'll often see the digit 3
> (normally silently implied) following the digit 4 to signify the
> resolution of the suspended fourth.
>
That never occurred to me because I have only used it in harmony.
But a ninth would be represented by a 2 if there were no seventh,
and those dissonances would be represented by long
appoggiature in the solo part and very probably not appear in the
figured bass at all in the baroque performer's music. It should
be up to the soloist to decide when to resolve those if he
is expected to improvise, not the accompanist.
> >
> > So how did you do the slash through the 5 to indicate an
> > augmented 5th? Or through the 7th to indicate a maj7?
>
> in my own typesettings I didn't but in stead used the convention of
> representing the augmentation by a trailing #.
>
Then why not write a maj7 with a trailing "M" the way the French
do?
Much better than a delta, especially when scribbled rather than
typeset. Of course it's not as international as a slashed 7, or
as brief. :-)
Permit me to heartily second the motion that not one second of
time be spent on figured bass. It is only useful to the writers
of textbooks, and, if they need software, they don't know enough
to be writing a textbook. I argued this before with reference to
chord parsing, to no avail. Better to fix lyrics to do it, as
suggested.
It is a pity that nonsense like figured bass generates a ton of
discussion of pretty good quality while real notation-busting
dilemmas don't seem to. But I enjoy a p---ing contest as well as
the next guy, and I'm not afraid of learning something
Bless you and thank you.
.daveA
