Confession time: the first time when I played figured bass (I was very young) I just put chord symbols in my score. It might have even been the same concert where we played French Baroque with notes inégales and the bassist just put “Swing it!” on his music.
In fairness to you, chord symbols and figured bass are (to my mind) two halves of the same coin.
Really interesting though, how figured bass and chord symbols are tied to their traditions and style of music.
For instance, in C major, a 6-chord on d is a perfectly simple and common thing. But what chord symbol should be used? G7(no G)/D? Dm6(no A)?
B°/D perhaps?
That would depend whether the “6” is intended to signify an added 6th or the first inversion of the D chord. I think most would interpret it as an added sixth.
(Why leave the A out of Dm6?)
I wait to be corrected, but 6 in figured bass is usually just a 1st inversion; with 64 being a 2nd.
Perhaps I misunderstood the original frame of reference. I was think of chord symbols rather than figured bass: D6 or II6. I would interpret a 6 under a D bass note as VII6 or the way @PjotrB did.
It is, but usually the bass note is not being played in the 6-chord (right hand), it’s 6/3 rather than 8/6/3.
In contrast the bass note is being played in a 6/4 chord
In the realm of figured bass, probably not. The 6 is, as others have clarified, shorthand for 6/3. If the composer wanted a Dm6 chord, the figures would have to be 6/5 (shorthand for 6/5/3).
It is really a very practical thing rather than a theoretical; D is in the bass line, and instead of just a standard triad 5/3 I play 6/3 instead; as a figured bass player I do not even have to think about inversions and roots.
(You probably should have read the rest of the thread before replying.)
I did.
Some 1950s jazz texts, like John Mehegan’s, sort of intertwine chord symbols and figured bass like this:
+6 means an added 6th, x means a dominant 7th chord (miXolydian), etc. The first 4m would be something like this:
(He doesn’t have the 9th specified on his Ix chord, but that’s the melody note.) I’m certainly glad this style didn’t really catch on, LOL!
