ABSTRACT
In a bizarre Rosacrucian-like paean to the celestial virtues of the basso-continuo published in 1729, Francois Campion modestly proffers the regle as the divine key to musical and spiritual enlightenment. Few pedagogues were prepared to go as far as Lorenz Christoph Mizler in setting down such mechanistic prescriptions for the realization of a thorough-bass, let alone in such a cumbersome manner. The regle de l'octave makes a good starting point for learning to accompany the aria, and as Campion points out, much else in Atys given the strong Italianate quality to the opera's many bass lines that progress in diatonic, step-wise motion. The value of a progression like the regle de I 'octave to improvisational practice was noted by many musicians in the eighteenth century. In a supplemental treatise published in 1730, Campion provided an illustration of his method in practice.
