Cifrato
Figured, provided with figured-bass numbers.
What it means
Cifrato means “figured” and designates a bass part under which numbers stand that indicate the chords to be played above the bass note. The figuring is a shorthand: it does not prescribe in which position and with which voice-leading the chord is to be played, only which intervals are to sound above the bass. The execution — the realization — is left to the player.
In the notation
The numbers stand directly under the respective bass note and count the intervals above it. If a figure is missing, a triad in root position is meant; 6 designates the first-inversion chord, 6/4 the second-inversion chord, 7 the seventh chord, and its inversions the combinations 6/5, 4/3, and 2. A sharp, a flat, or a natural next to or in place of a figure alters the note in question; a stroke through the figure means its raising. A horizontal line after a figuring indicates that the chord remains over changing bass notes. An unfigured bass — basso seguente or simply without numbers — leaves the harmony entirely to the ear and to a glance at the upper voices.
Musical use
The figuring is the Baroque means of communication between composer and continuo player. It makes it possible to realize the same piece differently according to scoring, room, and occasion: thinner or fuller, chordal or with figuration of its own. Read in terms of functional theory, a figuring indicates degree and inversion, not the function itself — the same sequence of figures can mean tonic, subdominant (IV), or dominant (V) depending on the key.
Performance practice
Do not read the figures as a grip pattern but as an interval distance from the bass; once you have internalized this, figuring becomes faster than any written-out part. Practise at first in three parts in close position and with the smallest possible movements between the chords. Take care not to play more notes than the texture can bear, and never let the upper voice get in the way of the melody. With unfigured passages, it helps to deduce the harmony from the upper voices and to enter your own solution.