Exercise

Bass 255 — Sixth-chord stream in quarters

Bass motions and sequencesF major

Corpus id bass-255 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The sixth-chord stream at speed: six first inversions in quarter notes, the whole texture sliding in parallel until the dominant stops it.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1				bar 2				bar 3				bar 4
Bass	F3				E3	D3	C3	B♭2	A2	G2	C3		F3
Figures					6	6	6	6	6	6

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2				bar 3			bar 4
Soprano	C5	C5	B♭4	A4	G4	F4	E4	E4	F4
Alto	A4	G4	F4	E4	D4	C4	B♭3	C4	C4
Tenor	F4	G4	D4	A3	B♭3	C4	G3	G3	A3
Bass	F3	E3	D3	C3	B♭2	A2	G2	C3	F3
Figures		6	6	6	6	6	6

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

Stage 3 taught the stream as a texture; here it is an engine — six chords in six beats, running the bass down a sixth while soprano and alto ride their parallel tracks. Speed changes nothing about the discipline: the doubling voice still zigzags between the letter-classes, arriving by contrary or oblique motion at every turn.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The same stream you learned in halves, now at walking speed. The outer voices slide in parallel; only the inner doubler has to think. Carry it into C major, G major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-255 — Sixth-chord stream in quarters. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-255

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-255

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