TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
9th Biennial Conference on Baroque Music
ABSTRACT
Basso Continuo Instrumentation at the Court of Olomouc-Kromeriz in the
Seventeenth Century
Robert Rawson
The basso continuo in central Europe was realised by a flexible ensemble
which could accommodate anything from solo singers or instrumentalists
to massive forces often required for motets and masses. There has been
a recent tendency among some scholars to limit the size and instrumentation
of basso continuo groups in seventeenth-century central Europe. Several
recent articles have put foreword the argument that basso continuo parts
at the court of Olomouc-Kromeriz were realised by nothing other than a
single organ. This study reveals that the basso continuo in seventeenth-century
Moravia was realised by a wide variety of instruments, and that the orchestration
of the continuo part, contrary to some recent assertions, could change
throughout a piece to accommodate the affekt of the music. This argument
is supported with primary source material from central European archives,
including music by Biber, Vejvanovsky, Finger and Carissimi.
Last updated on 3 April 2000 by Yo
Tomita