thorough bass

American  

[beys] / 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

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

"Yes, yes, then they are amazed and put their heads together because they never found it in any book on thorough bass."

From Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words by Krehbiel, Henry Edward

Some, if not all of the Psalms of David, had vocal compositions set to them by William and Henry Lawes, with a thorough bass, for an Organ, in four large books or volumes in 4to.

From The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I. by Cibber, Theophilus

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 Cooper, James Fenimore

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 Nohl, Ludwig