Exercise

Bass 258 — Falling thirds, minor

Bass motions and sequencesA minor

Corpus id bass-258 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

Falling thirds in minor, where the chain’s last step would land on the diminished chord — and the bass turns the harmony over instead of stepping in.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	A3	F3	D3	D3	E3		A2
Figures				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
Soprano	E4	F4	F4	F4	E4	E4
Alto	C4	C4	D4	D4	B3	C4
Tenor	A3	A3	A3	B3	G♯3	A3
Bass	A3	F3	D3	D3	E3	A2
Figures				6	#

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

Minor’s falling thirds would land next on the diminished triad’s root — so the tradition turns the chord over first: the 5–6 exchange over the standing bass converts the subdominant into the diminished chord’s first inversion, the one position where it serves gladly. The sequence ends by borrowing Stage 3’s smallest move.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The chain reaches the fourth degree and stops falling: one finger rises a step instead, and the diminished chord arrives standing safely on its third. Carry it into E minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-258 — Falling thirds, minor. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-258

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-258

Loading…