A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tasto Solo

by George Grove

TASTO SOLO. Tasto (Fr. touche) means the part in an instrument which is touched to produce the note; in a keyed instrument, therefore, the key. 'Tasto solo,' the key alone, is in old music written over those portions of the bass or continuo part in which the mere notes were to be played by the accompanyist, without the chords or harmonies founded on them.

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