Why Is Figured Bass Not a Complete Accompaniment Score?

In Baroque scores, a keyboard player may encounter only a bass line with a few numbers beside it. The figures indicate intervals to be formed above the bass, but they usually do not specify every right-hand note, register, rhythmic density or ornament. This is figured bass: not an incomplete piano part, but a harmonic framework that the performer must realise.

Corelli’s Violin Sonatas, Op. 5, offer a clear example. The violin carries the melody, a bass instrument plays the written line, and a harpsichordist supplies harmony from the figures. At the same point, the player might use compact chords or moving inner parts, but the choice is not arbitrary. It must follow the bass, tonal grammar and phrase direction while leaving space for the soloist. Where figures are omitted, context must suggest the most natural harmony.

The listening question is not whether the accompaniment reproduces one authorised answer, but how it joins bass and melody into a single action. A good realisation can add weight at a cadence, thin out beneath a busy solo, and make the preparation and resolution of dissonance audible. For pianists accustomed to fully notated music, continuo offers a useful reminder: harmonic knowledge becomes music only when it guides real-time voicing and shared breathing. Its freedom is judgement within constraints, not licence to add anything.

https://openmusictheory.github.io/bassoContinuo-history.html
https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Violin_Sonatas%2C_Op.5_%28Corelli%2C_Arcangelo%29