thorough bass

American  

[bays] / beɪs /

noun

Music.

1. figured bass.

2. continuo.

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thorough bass British  

/ beɪs /

noun

1. 1. Also called: basso continuo, continuo. (esp during the baroque period) a bass part underlying a piece of concerted music. It is played on a keyboard instrument, usually supported by a cello, viola da gamba, etc See also figured bass

   2. ( as modifier )

      a thorough-bass part

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Etymology

Origin of thorough bass

First recorded in 1655–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

thorough bass

Not fatigued by his radicalisation of both musical texture and technique, Corelli added another flourish to his work: a musical shorthand called figured bass, or thorough bass, inherited from Monteverdi and universally adopted after him.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

I could make nothing out of him, except that he ran a thorough bass to the higher pitches of his companions' humours.

From A Residence in France With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland by James Fenimore Cooper

Only sometimes the thorough bass I contrive to guess at, from its being supereminently harsh and disagreeable.

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

Who would do so better than his old professor of thorough bass and composition, Carl Zelter, the director of the Berlin Singakademie.

From The World's Great Men of Music Story-Lives of Master Musicians by Harriette Brower

I ought also to mention that Herr Drechsler is the unsalaried professor of thorough bass at St. Anna's, and has been so for the last ten years.

From Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Volume 2 by Ludwig Nohl