ABSTRACT
Of all the musical genres of the Baroque, the cantata for voice and basso continuo offers the greatest scope for continuo players to display their harmonic, rhythmic and compositional skills; and the opening and closing bars of a da capo aria give the continuo player great exposure. This chapter deals with the ways to analyse and treat the composed material within the aria to play a stylistically plausible and varied realization during the ritornellos. Modern scholarship has come to accept the essentially improvisatory nature of basso continuo performance, and simplicity allows the performer to add freely to a basic harmonic framework. The ritornello's bass line can consist of: the same material used as an accompaniment to the voice part; and an anticipation of the vocal theme or material derived from it. To achieve the flexibility necessary for success in the performance of the aria, the composer is best advised to leave the realization of the ritornello entirely to the player.
