On 18 Apr 2006 at 20:23, Johannes Gebauer wrote: > Or, alternatively, put the figures on top, which a lot of continuo > players prefer anyway, and which is the standard 18th century way of > doing it, too.
I've never understood where the practice of putting the figures under the bass line originated. If you're realizing the bass at the keyboard, you're doing it *above* the bass line, which is why it is completely logical to have the figures above the bass line. Likewise, if you're realizing a melody with a bass, the figures then fall between the melodic line and the bass line, rather than below, which makes it much easier to read from bass up through the figures to the melody line. I don't care what modern conventions are. It's performer-hostile notation to put figures below the bass. (actually, my bet is that the only reason it became a norm was because editions were printing realizations, and the figures then got in the way. Nowadays, most skilled keyboardists will pretty much ignore a printed realization anyway) -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
