Review of Massimiliano Guido, ed.,Studies in Historical Improvisation fromCantare super LibrumtoPartimenti (Ashgate, 2017)

The study of contrapuntal pa.erns and their diminutions was a common thread among historical music pedagogies. Medieval and Renaissance musicians learned counterpoint by memorizing intervallic combinations and internalizing surface pa.erns The partimento "rules," or pa.erns, of the eighteenth century (such as Francesco Durante's "when the partimento ascends by half step, it takes the 6th") were comparable to the formulas of the Klangschri lehre tradition (Sachs 1971). (1) By providing an incipit for realizing the partimento Gj. 92 (Example 1), Durante tacitly taught a canon module (Example 2) associated with the long-standing tradition of improvised vocal counterpoint (surveyed in Froebe 2007). My realization continues the canon and responds to the ensuing bass pa.erns using Durante's rules for realization. Thus, interrelationships among figured bass, contrapuntal skeletons, and diminution techniques pervaded centuries of musicianship pedagogy in Europe.