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Scored for five voices, five unspecified instrumental parts and basso continuo, the music is reverent and wistful.

Although he has rarely spoken about it, this staggering early blow lingers in the recesses of Ashbery’s mature work, lending his writing a basso continuo of transience, elegy and loss.

All of this was, however, accompanied by a strong basso continuo: the candidate’s business experience, financial independence, and fabled prowess at negotiation and “the art of the deal.”

The musicians give the accompaniment, a single basso continuo line, pleasing variety because of the various combinations of bass viol, harpsichord, organ, lute and theorbo.

Within it all, squeaking metal yielded a high-pitched ostinato, and the ever-so-slightly-clattery rumble of the train was the high-tech equivalent of a Baroque basso continuo.