Figured Bass, Scores

Most of the music I have for major orchestral/choral works is in the form of midi, which I look at through my sequencer.

However, I did at one time purchase the Full Score of Mozart's Requiem.

Much of the music has figured bass beneath.

What I am curious about is this - for this particular piece of music, did Mozart indicate the figured bass, or was it added by the editor?

Also - for those of you who digest scores - how often do you see figured bass indications, and are they editor's work, or do they form part of the composer's notes?

Often composers will have added the figured bass themselves. Years ago I studied the urtext of Mozart's Requiem, and I honestly don't remember whether he did the figured bass himself or not...there were annotations indicating what was original Mozart and what had been added by Eibler and Sussmayr. Since Mozart left so much of the piece a skeleton, I would tend to believe that whatever figured bass there may have been was added for performance, probably by Sussmayr.

You might look in the music library of your local university to see whether they have an urtext or facsimile of the Requiem. It will likely tell you all you need to know - about that piece, anyway.

In general, continuo parts were not written out during the 18th Century, ergo the need for figured bass in the first place. I don't write out my own continuo parts except for electronic "performance," and have written figured bass for live performances, in keeping with my rule of authenticity to the utmost possible; this chagrined the performers at first, but most well-trained keyboardists understand the technique, and once they got into it, they appreciated the challenge and the artistic freedom it gave them.

Thanks J. Lee - I might just do that(regarding the Requiem Score).

The reason I ask is because the harmony book I am studying out of uses it, and I am finding it quite helpful in avoiding typical harmonic mistakes in Tonal music - as well as in the planning stages for my own compositions - the harmonic skeleton.

Mozart is one of my favourite(spelled right where I live ;) ) composers, I love his Requiem, and the figured bass was a bit of a curiosity - since I remember reading he had perfect pitch. Perhaps if it was added by him, it was in looking forward to someone else finishing the work - perhaps.

I've always wondered whether he used it as a tool.