Exercise

Bass 262 — Half-diminished 6/5

Minor-mode specificsE minor

Corpus id bass-262 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The half-diminished 6/5 — the classic approach to the cadence: its seventh is held straight through the cadential 6/4 as the suspended fourth, and falls onto the sharp.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	E3		G3	A3	B3	B3	E3
Figures			6	6/5	6/4	#

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Soprano	B4	B4	C5	B4	B4	B4
Alto	G4	E4	F♯4	G4	F♯4	G4
Tenor	E4	E4	E4	E4	D♯4	E4
Bass	E3	G3	A3	B3	B3	E3
Figures		6	6/5	6/4	#

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

The 6/5’s seventh — the fifth above its bass — does not resolve at once: the cadential 6/4 arrives on the dominant and the seventh is retained as its fourth, the same tone renamed by a new bass. Its fall comes with the ♯, landing on the raised third itself. Pre-dominant, six-four and dominant are stitched together by a single obligated tone.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The tenor’s E is struck once and owned for four chords: chord tone, seventh, suspended fourth, and only then D sharp. Play the tenor alone first and hear one tone change its meaning three times. Carry it into A minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-262 — Half-diminished 6/5. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-262

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-262

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