Realisation
Realisation means: a figured bass is turned into written-out chords. In the Baroque often only the bass line with figures appeared in the sheet music, and the player filled in the chords themselves. This filling in is called realisation.
- Meaning
- write out or play chords to a figured bass
- Also
- figured-bass playing, continuo playing
- Written as
- bass line plus figures
- Not to be confused with
- Roman numerals
From figures to chords
Figured bass was the usual way of writing accompaniment in the Baroque. The composer notated the bass line and put figures above it showing which intervals were to sound above the bass note. The player, for instance at the harpsichord, the organ or the lute, put the chords together from that. This laying out is called realisation. It demands that you know chords and their inversions, for the figures give only the bass and the intervals, not the position of the other notes.
Bass and realisation: I–V6–I
Each chord contains at the bottom the bass line (C, B, C) and above it the realised notes. With the first and third there is no figure, so a triad in root position. The second has the figure 6 in the original, so a six-three chord over B.
How to read the figures
No figure means: triad on the bass note, so third and fifth above it. The figure 6 means: the sixth above the bass sounds, and the third, if nothing else is stated, is understood. That is a six-three chord, the triad in first inversion. The table shows the three chords of the example.
| Bass | Figure in the score | Meaning | Realised notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | none | triad on the bass note | C, E, G, C |
| B | 6 | third and sixth above the bass (six-three chord) | B, D, G, D |
| C | none | triad on the bass note | C, E, G, C |
On the way to the finished texture the player makes decisions: which notes to double, in what position to lead the upper voices and how the voices move from chord to chord, if possible by step and in contrary motion. The example shows one of several possible solutions.
Realisation and Roman numerals
The page Roman numerals explains Roman numeral notation: Roman numerals denote the chords by their degree in the key. In figured bass, by contrast, Arabic numerals are written above the bass line, counting intervals. Roman numerals say on which degree of the key a chord sits; the figured-bass figure says how it is built above the bass. Both ways of writing can be used side by side.
Common mistakes
- Reading the figure as a note name: it counts intervals above the bass, it names no note.
- Forgetting the third when only a 6 is written: it is understood unless something else is demanded.
- Mixing realisation and Roman numerals: the Roman numerals are written below or above the bass for degrees, not for intervals.
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Related terms
Roman numeralsChord inversionTriadDiatonic chordCadenceAccompanimentSeventh chordRoot position
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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