basso continuo

American  

noun

Music.

1. continuo.

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basso continuo British  

noun

1. Often shortened to: continuo.  another term for thorough bass

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Etymology

Origin of basso continuo

First recorded in 1665–75

Example Sentences

Scored for five voices, five unspecified instrumental parts and basso continuo, the music is reverent and wistful.

From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2020

Although he has rarely spoken about it, this staggering early blow lingers in the recesses of Ashbery’s mature work, lending his writing a basso continuo of transience, elegy and loss.

From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2017

Within it all, squeaking metal yielded a high-pitched ostinato, and the ever-so-slightly-clattery rumble of the train was the high-tech equivalent of a Baroque basso continuo.

From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2012

But it was in 1602 that he published his "Cento concerti ecclesiastici a 1, a 2, a 3, e a 4 voci, con il basso continuo per sonar nell' organo."

From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by Henderson, W. J. (William James)

The innovations of the Florentine reformers included also the invention of thorough bass, or the basso continuo, as the Italians call it.

From Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by Henderson, W. J. (William James)