i have looked up countless ways. i cannot for the life of me put a figured bass on rest. this is what i want to do (from dubois traite d’harmonie):
the “show figured bass” property on the notes and rests category doesnt work. somebody anybody help me out please!
The “Show figured bass” property is a property of the rest, not of the figure.
It should work (and does for me) if you select the rest, and set the property.
Yes, I fell into that trap at the beginning, too. You will have to select the rest first.
Okay, I need to learn something new here!
I’m familiar with figured bass from my time in music theory classes (in the last century). What I’m not getting, here, is why one would need to add it to a rest! 
(The only thing I can surmise is to show some kind of passing figure while the bass line breaks)–?
— Jim
There are some occurrences in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, where Bach initially notated long notes in the recitatives, then changed it to short notes in the final score. The organist can omit the chord – which refers to the preceding bass note – or play it just with the right hand or both hands. The string continuo silences in any case.
Okay, that makes sense! 
Thanks!
I don’t disagree. Except, without an actual bass note the figures are somewhat meaningless.
…me disagree neither 
Although the human brain is capable of keeping a preceding bass note in its short term memory.
I would suggest that figured bass numbers were quite often used as a sort of chiffre/code to guide the players, give them hints or secret messages - rather than orders to execute.
I am not a continuo player, but I know this is a wonderful field for creative musicians - because you rely on knowledge, instinct, creativity.
No, generally they represent exactly the current harmony. Especially in case of Bach it’s really necessary because Bach’s harmony progression is often unpredictable.
There is plenty of field for creative musicians, though, because there is no direction for the voicing. I played a lot of figured bass in my life, it’s fun to play from the score.
Yes, this is also the current practice particularly within the historically informed performance scene HIP. Even if one knows that at Bach’s time an organist would play from a part rather than a score. It was also common practise, to have transposed parts (quite often for the organ, if they were at higher pitches “Chorton”). This is from BWV 109:
My personal go/view on this is, the HIP unintentionally carries the music historical weight of the 19th century. The era of pianoforte and violin virtuosos. That’s why nowadays, when much earlier music is being performed, it is the keyboard players or violin “leaders” who get the “master” (the score).
Following this development, a lot of chamber organs (=which would fit into the boot of a car) were built and used in performances and recordings. Which then completely shifted the aural expectations of baroque music. Church music had never been performed on a camping organ before the 20th century.
What gets me is that there are frequently 18th-century parts marked “Organ” which have some figures, but not nearly enough to accurately play the right chords…!
May be an equivalent would be string parts without the fingerings. The musicians were still able to handle this
Bad analogy. String fingering is just a personal preference, not a harmonic requirement.
My analogy would be that a good keyboard player will have a sense for the harmonic progression in his head, even without seeing all figures. Even when performing a piece for the first time.
Indeed, but consider that the players of this time period didn’t have the experience of classical and romantic music due to obvious reasons. They knew much more than we do today how to anticipate the harmony progression of the “mainstream” music of their time.
Two years ago I have transcribed Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater RV 621. The manuscript lacked much figures and even accidentals in the string parts, but there were quite easy to add, if you are a bit familiar with baroque music. When you play it as written it sounds just wrong.
Bach is an exception. His music is so complex that the player needs a lot of information. Nevertheless there are cantatas with very rare figured bass probably omitted because of shortage of time.
Very well explained, thank you.
I had a similar experience this year - with the exact same piece RV 621. For a church performance I provided a seemingly neat edition from the source imslp. After a few days I had a funny feeling and thought “I’ll better check on that Vivaldi edition”. Good instinct, as almost every bar had mistakes and misinterpretations of the source - as you mentioned especially with accidentals. It was actually fun to “reconstruct” the piece with help of a manuscript copy. The concert hasn’t taken place yet
I think you are confusing basso continuo with ‘basse chiffrée’, which is used in harmony exercises.
Dubois never mentioned basso continuo in se, but his treatise deals solely with harmony exercises; these are two very different things.
(A comment from yours truly, a specialist in 18th-century French Baroque music)
