Exercise

Bass 236 — Suspension chain 2–3, minor

SuspensionsA minor

Corpus id bass-236 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The 2–3 chain in minor, falling by whole and half steps down the natural scale until the sixth chord over the dominant sharpens into the true dominant.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5		bar 6
Bass	A2		A2	G2	G2	F2	F2	E2	E2		A2
Figures			5/2	6	5/2	6	5/2	6	#

The given bass and its figures (A minor, 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	E4	E4	E4	D4	D4	C4	C4	E4	E4
Alto	C4	B3	B3	A3	A3	G3	G3	B3	C4
Tenor	A3	A3	B3	G3	A3	F3	G3	G♯3	A3
Bass	A2	A2	G2	G2	F2	F2	E2	E2	A2
Figures		5/2	6	5/2	6	5/2	6	#

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

The bass walks the natural minor scale from tonic to dominant, suspending at every station. The last fall lands on E carrying a sixth chord — not yet a dominant — and the close is made over the standing bass: the sixth gives way to the fifth, the third is raised, and the chain’s wreckage is forged into V.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The chain ends standing on E with a C above it — then the 6 becomes 5 and the G becomes G sharp, and the chord the chain left behind turns into the dominant that ends it. Carry it into E minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-236 — Suspension chain 2–3, minor. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-236

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-236

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