Exercise

Bass 260 — Two homes of the leading tone

Minor-mode specificsG minor

Corpus id bass-260 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The two homes of the raised leading tone below the tonic: in the bass as V6, and inside the ♯6 chord — never doubled in either.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Bass	G2		F♯2	G2	A2	B♭2	C3	D3	G2
Figures			6		#6	6		#

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Soprano	D5	D5	D5	C5	D5	E♭5	D5	D5
Alto	G4	A4	G4	F♯4	G4	G4	F♯4	G4
Tenor	B♭3	A3	B♭3	A3	D4	C4	A3	B♭3
Bass	G2	F♯2	G2	A2	B♭2	C3	D3	G2
Figures		6		#6	6		#

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

One raised tone, two chords: as the bass of V6 the leading tone carries its rising obligation itself, and inside the ♯6 chord it is the figured sixth with the same single step to make. Both times the upper voices keep clear of it — a tone with one place to go can never be given to two voices.

At the keyboard

This realization is choral — the upper voices exceed a single hand’s span. F sharp appears three times in three guises: under the hand as the bass of V6, inside the ♯6 stack, and in the closing dominant. It is never in two fingers at once. Carry it into D minor, C minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-260 — Two homes of the leading tone. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-260

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-260

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