Partimento

For the art of creating an accompaniment from figured bass, see Realization (figured bass).
A simple partimento with figures to teach beginners. (Fenaroli Partimento No. 1, Book 1, Gj1301)
A partimento fugue for more advanced students. As students progressed, partimenti became unfigured. (Fenaroli Partimento Fugue 8, Book 5, Gj1418)

A Partimento (from the Italian: partimento, plural partimenti) is a sketch (often a bass line), written out on a single staff, whose main purpose is to be a guide for the improvisation ("realization") of a composition at the keyboard.[1] A Partimento differs from a basso continuo accompaniment in that it is a basis for a complete composition.[2] Partimenti were central to the training of European musicians from the late 1600s until the early 1800s. They were developed in the Italian conservatories, especially at the music conservatories of Naples, and later at the Paris Conservatory, which emulated the Neapolitan conservatories.[3]

  1. ^ Sanguinetti 2012, p. 14.
  2. ^ Sanguinetti 2012, p. 167.
  3. ^ The History of Partimenti Monuments of Partimenti