Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music figured bass

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[thorough, through and through + bass.]

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Examples

  • Various later Passions borrowed from it, and a manuscript dated 1743, complete with added thoroughbass part, shows that it was still performed 150 years after its composition.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009

  • Sebastian Bach's definition of thoroughbass as the foundation of music is well known (1738):

    MUSIC AS A DEMONIC ART REINHOLD HAMMERSTEIN 1968

  • Like all other music the end and object of thoroughbass is only for the honor of God and recreation of the spirit.

    MUSIC AS A DEMONIC ART REINHOLD HAMMERSTEIN 1968

  • Four years later Mendelssohn met her and became her teacher in counterpoint and thoroughbass.

    Woman's Work in Music Arthur Elson

  • His complete works on thoroughbass, harmony and composition were published, in three volumes, by his pupil, Ignaz Von Seyfried.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • The pastor of St. Martin's, Klosterneuburg, observing the boy's talent and his remarkable industry, and being himself an excellent musician, gave him the first lessons in thoroughbass, and even had a little organ built for him.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • Viadana of Mantua gave him the final touches of his musical education, and both men are entitled to the distinction of having developed thoroughbass and of having taught the correct method of figuring a bass.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • Pablo de Sarasate they are more or less perplexed, -- it is as though you ask them to describe in set, cold terms the counterpoint and thoroughbass of the wind's symphony to the trees, -- the great ocean's sonata to the shore, or the delicate madrigals sung almost inaudibly by little bell-blossoms to the tinkling fall of April rain.

    Ardath Marie Corelli 1889

  • The final quartette is a sad affair, musically speaking, constructed on the Marquis's own ideas of thoroughbass.

    In the Courts of Memory, 1858 1875; from Contemporary Letters 1886

  • Gothgorod father godown followay tomollow the lucky load to Lublin for make his thoroughbass grossman’s big-ness.

    Finnegans Wake 2006

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