Principio di continuare il basso di Francesco Bartolomeo Conti

In 1724, Francesco Bartolomeo Conti was in serious difficulties preparing the carnival opera: a harpsichordist had resigned and left the court just a few weeks earlier, another harpsichordist was in Italy for advanced training in the latest style and the remaining harpsichordist had just cut his fingers in the kitchen at home with a cabbage slicer while preparing sauerkraut. The court music director Johann Joseph Fux is plagued by gout and can only play slow church pieces in contrapuntal style. So who is to accompany the singers in the latest opera, especially in the recitatives? Conti's only hope is a private student, but he is not yet sufficiently advanced in music theory and especially harmonics to be able to determine the correct harmonies from the parts, and he is still struggling with the wide variety of clefs used for the vocal parts. Fortunately, the young man, who actually works in the Hofkämmerei (i.e. in the court's finance department), is musically talented and otherwise quite clever – so the main problem is rather the type of notation he is unaccustomed to.

In order to save the performance, Conti quickly created his own musical “shorthand score”. An initial attempt based on the German organ tablature proved to be too complicated and was discarded by Conti:

Finally, Conti had the decisive idea of using the mathematical skills of the musically gifted bureaucrat and indicating the correct harmony in mathematical expressions above the notes for the left hand. The following notation can be reconstructed from the manuscript, which has only survived in fragments and is barely legible:

The performance was saved, Penelope was a great success and nobody, not even the critical and musically learned Emperor Charles VI, noticed that the harpsichordist was playing from a completely new and unusual notation.

Conti was so convinced of this method of notation, saving time, paper and ink, that he revised it during the musically not so busy Lent period and made it practicable for less mathematically adept musicians with a simple numbering system: the intervals are now directly indicated with ciphers from 1 (prime) to 9 (ninth), in exceptional cases also up to 12 (duodecimal) – these intervals are to be fingered from the right hand to the bass note of the left hand.

The result is a continuous bass in the harpsichord, a basso Conti-nuo. Due to the ambiguity of the word “continuo”, Conti's pioneering invention of this rapidly spreading principle has almost been forgotten – but thanks to the manuscripts that have now been rediscovered, including a draft for “Il Principio di continuare il basso”, Conti's previously unrecognized position in music history can be entirely reassessed – including possible cross-connections to his distant descendant Robert Conti (*1945 Philadelphia), who developed the jazz chord notation from Conti's continuo principle.

New, large-scale interdisciplinary research and practical projects at the GMPU will increasingly focus on these issues over the next few years.

Stay in contact with us on social media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571051295756

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/penelope2025_gmpu/?hl=de 

 Tickets for the Performances of PENELOPE 2025 on 23. and 24. May 2025 are now available! 

You missed the opportunity to attend the rehearsals on January 26 and the dress rehearsal on February 3, 1724, or you lacked the contacts at the Imperial Court to gain admission?
Unfortunately, you also missed the premiere on February 6 and the reprises on February 13, 20 and 26, 1724? 

Then now – after a long 300+1 years and 3 months of waiting – you have the chance to enjoy Conti's carnival opera Penelope again, at the Konzerthaus Klagenfurt with masterfully performing students from the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music and the Conservatorio di musica in Venice, in an enchanting production by Stefanie Planton and under the spirited direction of Klaus Kuchling! 

Ulisse and Penelope meet again after 24 years: were they faithful to each other? 
Who will take the throne and rule in Ithaka? 
Who will sing the great love duet?
Which aria sounds like a word rap? 
Why is Tersite afraid of a bassoon?

The unique chance to find out the answers is only on May 23 and 24 in Klagenfurt – don't miss it (again)!

Download flyer

…and who pays the bills?

A guest commentary by Elisabeth Theresia Hilscher (Vienna)

This question was rarely (if ever) asked at courts in the High Baroque period, as representation was seen as a dynastic, if not a political necessity. As Julius Bernhard von Rohr aptly formulated in his Einleitung zur Ceremoniel-Wissenschaft Der großen Herren (New Edition, Berlin 1733): “If the subjects are to recognize the majesty of the king, they must understand that he has supreme power and authority, and accordingly they must arrange their actions in such a way that they have reason to recognize his power and strength. The ordinary man, who clings only to the outward senses and makes little use of reason, cannot always imagine what the king’s majesty is, but through the things that catch his eye and stir his other senses, he gets a clear idea of his majesty, power and authority.”

The music education program for the opera Penelope 

Staging and communicating baroque opera in Klagenfurt

Text & conzept: Esther Planton 

The opera production “Penelope” offers a comprehensive music education program that aims to inspire its audience – especially young people – for the world of opera and baroque music. 

The length of the original version can only be estimated today, as we have too little information about it. It can be assumed that the original version of the opera “Penelope” lasted around 4 hours. For the opera performance in Klagenfurt, the original version is shortened to approx. 3 hours including breaks and is directed at upper school classes and adults. A youth opera with a length of 70 minutes will be staged for young people between the ages of 10 and 14.

Opera – what does that actually mean? In the sense of our project’s ambition to closely intertwine artistic work and scientific reflection, the legitimate question arises about our subject matter. If something is difficult to explain, it makes sense to first ask about the meaning of the term: What does “opera” mean? Where does this term come from? Can the word “opera” be translated into English?