Exercise

Bass 265 — Picardy third at the plagal close

Minor-mode specificsE minor

Corpus id bass-265 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The Picardy third: the exercise closes, then the minor subdominant confirms it twice against a tonic whose third the ♯ has turned major.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5		bar 6
Bass	E3		C3	A2	B2		E3		A2		E3
Figures			6		#		#				#

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	bar 5	bar 6
Soprano	G4	A4	A4	F♯4	G♯4	A4	G♯4
Alto	E4	E4	E4	D♯4	E4	E4	E4
Tenor	B3	C4	C4	B3	B3	C4	B3
Bass	E3	C3	A2	B2	E3	A2	E3
Figures		6		#	#		#

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

The ♯ under the final does what it has done at every dominant, one last time: raises the third above the bass. The tonic chord ends major while the subdominant that confirms it stays minor — C natural falling to B against G♯ standing above — and that friction is the Picardy effect: an ending brighter than the world it closes.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Play the last three chords slowly: C natural in the subdominant, G sharp in the tonic. The minor mode keeps its own color to the very end — only the final chord itself is brightened. Carry it into A minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-265 — Picardy third at the plagal close. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-265

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-265

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