FIGURED BASS (also known as THOROUGH-BASS, GEN ERAL BASS and BASSO CONTINUO) is a kind of musical shorthand. whereby the harmonies of a composition are indicated by means of figures above or below the bass part, instead of in the ordinary notation. It came into existence early in the 17th century in Italy, being introduced in the first place for the use of the organist or cembalist accompanying a choral composition, and thereafter was very widely and generally employed for a long period, but nowa days it is retained in use only in harmony text-books and similar technical works. The principle of the system is quite simple, the figures indicating the interval of the note to be played, reckoning from the bass upwards. Thus a 3 represents a third, a 5 a fifth, a 6 6 a sixth, and so on, e.g.; 5, 6, 5 and the like, chromatic signs being 3 4 3 added when necessary to indicate the inflection of a given inter val, e.g., b9, t44 . Much skill and taste were none the less re 5 4 3 quired for the proper interpretation of a figured bass, more espe cially as in course of time the signs used were still further abbre viated and simplified, leaving more and more to the knowledge and understanding of the performer, who was required further, not merely to provide the bare harmonies indicated, but to place and connect them in accordance with the laws of correct part-writing, to embellish them with runs, ornaments and so on, and generally to provide, on the strength of the mere indication of the essential harmonies, a complete and satisfying accompaniment.