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<p class="p1">Brian. I use figured bass in a number of ways and for several reasons in my class.</p>
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<p class="p1">First, of course, I ask my students to realize a figured bass. At early levels, I find this more useful than setting a soprano line. It removes the element of deciding what chord goes where (which I handle in a different fashion). And it allows
me to concentrate on voice leading.</p>
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<p class="p1">Secondly, I ask my students to convert a figured bass line into Roman numeral chord symbols. This calls forth a number of skills: handling intervals in light of a key signature, deciding what pitches signalled by the figured bass are Roman numeral
chord tones (and which pitches are embellishments thereof), and determining the correct inversion. I usually put a question testing this on my final exam.</p>
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<p class="p1">With a really good class, I will do more creative things, like ask them to convert a set of Roman numeral chord symbols into a figure bass, and I suppose ultimately convert a score directly into a figured bass. This is particularly useful for
teaching the sight reading of chamber and orchestral scores at the keyboard.</p>
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<p class="p1">Lastly, I teach figured bass because there is so much of it out there. Knowledge of figured bass allows one access to a lot of music and the potential (for keyboardists and guitarists) to make a tidy sum gigging. (It also makes for good conversation
about playing off jazz changes.)</p>
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<p class="p1">Murray Dineen</p>
<p class="p1">University of Ottawa</p>
<p class="p1">School of Music</p>
<p class="p1"><a href="mailto:murraydineen@uottawa.ca">murraydineen@uottawa.ca</a></p>
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<div id="divRpF184192" style="direction: ltr;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Smt-talk [smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org] on behalf of hoffmaba . [hoffmaba@gmail.com]<br>
<b>Sent:</b> 12 December 2014 13:33<br>
<b>To:</b> smt-talk@lists.societymusictheory.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Smt-talk] Realizing a figured bass in the curriculum<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Hello,
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<div>The past several years I have attempted to make classroom activities and assignments as practical as possible for future performers, educators, and ensemble directors. As a result, I find myself spending less and less time on realizing a figured bass.
I still teach its history and its usefulness in modeling voice leading, but I have trouble justifying for myself the skill of turning figured-bass notation into voice leading. I realize this is still a performance practice in very specific performance situations,
but as far as I'm aware, not beyond that.</div>
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<div>For those who feel that realizing a figured bass is an important part of a musical education, I would welcome any insight you have to offer since I feel uneasy about marginalizing such a widely-used portion of the curriculum. For those that spend little
time on realizing a figured bass, I would welcome any thoughts you have as well. </div>
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<div>Best,</div>
<div>Brian Hoffman</div>
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<div>-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">Dr. Brian D. Hoffman
<div>Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory</div>
<div>Butler University </div>
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