Concurrent with the birth of basso continuo, a few genres of music grew up together. Each genre required a different approach to playing basso continuo. Indeed, although the various genres are based on counterpoint rules, they differ in their compositional concept. Early seventeenth-century Italian sources have left us a great deal of information. However, it is seldom pedagogically presented as we would expect today, their contents being rarely explicit. Much implicit knowledge is contained in both these sources and the repertoire.
Considering the high contrapuntal training of early seventeenth-century keyboard players, the question arises as to how skilled keyboard players should be in this field today. A good example is the Fontana Sonatas (c. 1640), which contain several types of bass lines and basso continuo solos requiring similar contrapuntal realizations to the examples described by Spiridionis (1670) and thus blurring the boundaries between basso continuo and composition.
This PhD research by Maria Gonzalez aims to shed light on the different approaches to basso continuo practice in Venice between 1590 and 1630 by defining and applying them to performance according to historical sources and practices. The theoretical insights thus gained will be put in a broader perspective in which musical experimentation will be a fundamental asset. Concerts, recitals, and recording sessions will complete the valorization and dissemination of this research project.