Leading tone resolution and the inner-voice exception

The leading tone (^7) must resolve UP by step to tonic whenever it appears in an OUTER voice (soprano) — no exception in the outer voice, ever. The recognized exception: when ^7 falls in an INNER voice (alto/tenor) as part of a V→vi (deceptive) resolution, or when resolving it upward would force a forbidden doubling or a parallel-perfect violation elsewhere, it MAY instead move down to ^5 — but only in an inner voice, and only when the alternative genuinely avoids a worse fault.

Soprano carries the leading tone at a V-I cadence and moves DOWN to ^5 — forbidden in the outer voice with no exception available (error severity). An inner-voice leading tone that fails to resolve up WITHOUT the V→vi or forced-doubling justification is a separate, softer fault (warning severity — not universally forbidden, but suspicious).

Kostka & Payne — standard part-writing pedagogy, outside Gould/Read/Ross/Stone's scope, flagged as such.

This rule needs the notated content and the rendered result together — the score says what should happen, the page says whether it did.