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Exercise
Corpus id bass-252 · cite this id — it is permanent
The suspended chain — the 4–3 over falling fifths that GVL-006 promises: each seventh held past the new bass, striking as a fourth, falling late. Only a seventh can prepare these fourths; that is why this chain waited for this stage.
| 4/4 | bar 1 | bar 2 | bar 3 | bar 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bass | C3 | A2 | D3 | D3 | G2 | G2 | C3 | |
| Figures | 7 | 7/4 | 7 | 7/4 | 7 | |||
| 4/4 | bar 1 | bar 2 | bar 3 | bar 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano | G4 | G4 | G4 | F4 | F4 | F4 | E4 | |
| Alto | E4 | E4 | D4 | D4 | D4 | D4 | C4 | |
| Tenor | C4 | C4 | C4 | C4 | C4 | B3 | G3 | |
| Bass | C3 | A2 | D3 | D3 | G2 | G2 | C3 | |
| Figures | 7 | 7/4 | 7 | 7/4 | 7 | |||
The plain chain resolves each seventh as the bass arrives; here the resolution is withheld — the seventh is held over the new bass as a suspended fourth, strikes on the strong beat, and falls to the third, which is at once the new chord’s seventh. This is why the 4–3 cannot chain over plain triads: only a chordal seventh, held over, can prepare the next fourth. The suspension and the sequence are one machine.
The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Same chain as before, but every resolution arrives late: the bass lands first and the held tone leans against it for half a bar before falling. Play both chains in a row and hear time itself become the ornament. Carry it into G major, F major.
Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-252 — The chain of sevenths, suspended 4–3. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-252
Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-252