Exercise

Bass 267 — Minor dominant inflection

Minor-mode specificsC minor

Corpus id bass-267 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The minor dominant becoming the true dominant over one held bass note: the third above it inflects in a single voice, and the figure ♯ is the whole event.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	C3		A♭2	G2	G2		C3
Figures			6		#

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3	bar 4
Soprano	E♭4	F4	G4	G4	G4
Alto	C4	C4	D4	D4	E♭4
Tenor	G3	C4	B♭3	B3	C4
Bass	C3	A♭2	G2	G2	C3
Figures		6		#

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

The half-step fall from ♭6 finds only the minor dominant — a chord of the key with no pull home. Then the ♯ arrives and the tenor inflects B♭ to B♮ in its own line, as chromatic motion must: the raised tone belongs to the chord, not the scale, and the voice that starts the inflection finishes it. The same bass note, made urgent.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. One finger moves one half step — B flat to B natural — and the chord under your hand changes from a place the music might rest to a place it cannot. Hold everything else still and listen to what one semitone buys. Carry it into G minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-267 — Minor dominant inflection. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-267

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-267

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