An instrumental bass (organ, etc.) which merely duplicates the lowest vocal part.

A term used by Adriano Banchieri in Ecclesiastiche sinfonie … per sonare et cantare et sopra un basso seguente op.16 (Venice, 1607) to describe the work’s Continuo bass part, which was drawn from whichever part in the ensemble was the lowest at any one moment. In the third edition of Cartella (Venice, 1614 as Cartella musicale), Banchieri offered the term barittono as an equivalent, thereby pinpointing the wide range of such a bass part. The Cartella also suggests that a basso seguente part is by definition unbarred (? i.e. unbroken or seguente) and therefore less useful to an organist directing an ensemble than a barred bass part or bassi continui spartiti.