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

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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

It would be impossible to omit the name of Handel, the great thorough bass of musical composition, to whom Mozart confessed that every subsequent composer had been signally indebted.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 473, January 29, 1831 by Various

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

"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 Henry Edward Krehbiel

If she comes to Paris in eighteen months or two years, she will take lessons in thorough bass and composition.

From Women in the Life of Balzac by Juanita Helm Floyd

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