The Art of Accompaniment from a Thorough-Bass: As Practiced in the XVII and XVIII Centuries, Volume II: Book

This is the reference continuo players turn to when they want to understand not just the rules, but the reasoning behind them. Arnold's command of original sources combined with his gift for clear explanation makes complex historical practices accessible without oversimplifying them. You'll return to this volume repeatedly as your students ask better questions about style and interpretation.

This is scholarship that respects both the historical moment and the living musician. Arnold writes with the authority of deep research but never loses sight of the practical challenges continuo players face in real performance. Reading it feels like access to conversations happening in the world's best historical performance communities.

Continuo players serious about historical style, conductors programming Baroque works who want informed ensemble interpretation, musicology students requiring scholarly grounding in performance practice, and any performer ready to move beyond modern assumptions about how this music sounded.

• Study the musical examples alongside the text rather than reading passages in isolation; Arnold's examples demonstrate concepts that paragraphs alone cannot convey
• Return to specific chapters as you prepare unfamiliar repertoire; the book's organization lets you target exactly what you need for a particular score or performance situation
• Use Arnold's citations to track down original treatises and performance manuals; this volume serves as both a destination and a doorway to deeper research

Assign relevant chapters to continuo players preparing for a Baroque concert; their informed interpretive choices will transform the ensemble's sound. Faculty can use it to develop a school-wide approach to style when programming early music, ensuring consistency across different rehearsal groups.

• Recognizing harmonic conventions and chord symbols as they appear in seventeenth and eighteenth-century sources
• Applying stylistically appropriate realization techniques to figured bass notation
• Understanding the role of embellishment and ornament within the context of ensemble balance
• Reading original performance treatises and adapting historical guidance to contemporary ensembles