Abstract: The rediscovery of partimento tradition is a recent acquisition in the field of both music theory and musicology. Beginning from the end of the seventeenth century and well into the nineteenth, partimenti have been used all over Europe as ideal tools for the transmission of compositional craft through keyboard improvisation. Partimento tradition greatly influenced the minds of virtually all eighteenth century composers, and many Romantic composers – such as Verdi – were taught with them. This talk introduces partimenti, their history and theory, and discusses the possibility of reviving them as modern teaching tools. Part of the Carrigan Lecture Series