In the sheet music for BWV1, "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" the last instrument is labeled as "continuo". What does that mean?
The basso continuo was history around 1800. Early Jazz music didn't emerge from blues, gospel, ragtime etc. much before 1900. And I'm pretty certain that practically none of its inventors listened to recordings or performances of baroque music very much.
I’m looking for a realization of the basso continuo for the final chorale of BWV 147 (Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben), commonly known as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
the original score with figured bass (unrealized continuo), or later piano/organ transcriptions that don’t clearly reflect a standard continuo realization. As an amateur player (10+ years), I haven’t studied figured bass realization in depth, so I’m specifically interested in an already realized version suitable for organ or keyboard.
keyboard - Where can I find a realized basso continuo for Bach Chorale ...
Many continuo manuals (both historical sources and modern treatises) are careful to point out that a continuo realization should be contrapuntally correct, i.e., one ought to avoid parallel fifths and octaves in the extemporized parts, as well as other voice-leading mistakes.
Interestingly, the basso continuo surfaced again in the 20th Century, in the form of the jazz rhythm section: Same instruments: low register strings, keyboard and with the addition of drums - serving the same function: maintain an underlying 'groove', serving as a foundation for the solo voices.
Basso continuo realization can vary from simple harmonization to extensive explorations of harmony and counterpoint. A “full accompaniment” may require as many notes as the fingers can accommodate, and in such cases the rules forbidding consecutive fifths and the like are waived, except as they apply to the two outside (bottom and top) parts.