Exercise

Bass 10 — Bass in thirds

Root-position triads (5/3)D major

Corpus id bass-10 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

Falling thirds in a sharp key, gathering weight toward the cadence.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1	bar 2	bar 3	bar 4	bar 5	bar 6
Bass	D3	B2	G2	E3	A2	D3

The given bass and its figures (D major, 4/4; ⌒ = tied from the previous note)

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2	bar 3	bar 4	bar 5	bar 6
Soprano	D5	D5	D5	E5	E5	D5
Alto	A4	B4	B4	B4	C♯5	A4
Tenor	F♯4	F♯4	G4	G4	E4	F♯4
Bass	D3	B2	G2	E3	A2	D3

The model realization (D major, 4/4; ⌒ = tied from the previous note)

C♯ arrives only at the dominant. With the soprano claiming the close for itself, the alto’s leading tone takes the inner-voice license and falls to the fifth — the rise the ear expects is supplied by the soprano’s arrival above it.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Carry it into A major, G major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-10 — Bass in thirds. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-10

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-10

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