Unfigured bass

1600–1750) in which a basso continuo performer playing a chordal instrument (e.g., harpsichord, organ, or lute) improvises a chordal accompaniment from a notated bass line which lacks the guidance of figures indicating which harmonies should be played above the bass note (see figured bass).

From the earliest days of thoroughbass, composers and copyists have been chastised for providing bass parts without any figures to guide performers.

[1] In the early baroque period published parts were as likely to be unfigured as figured, leading to unusual clashes of harmony on a first reading.

By convention, bass notes of root-position chords (53) were often left unfigured.

Many music masters in the Baroque period educated students in the art of playing unfigured bass accompaniment fluently.