Exercise

Bass 272 — The subdominant melting to minor

Bare accidentals as figuresG major

Corpus id bass-272 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The subdominant melting from major to minor over a held bass: one voice inflects E to E♭ under the bare ♭, then falls its half step onto the dominant.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	G2		C3	C3	D3		G2
Figures				b

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3	bar 4
Soprano	G4	G4	G4	F♯4	G4
Alto	D4	E4	E♭4	D4	D4
Tenor	B3	C4	C4	A3	B3
Bass	G2	C3	C3	D3	G2
Figures			b

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

The chromatic inflection belongs to one line: the alto sounds E as the subdominant’s major third, lowers it to E♭ in its own voice as the ♭ demands — never handing the alteration to a neighbor — and then spends the borrowed tone exactly as minor would, falling by semitone onto the dominant’s fifth. Distance created by a sign, released by a step.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. One finger slides E to E flat while everything else stands still — then that same finger falls again onto D. Two semitones, one voice, and the whole color of the phrase turns. Carry it into C major, D major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-272 — The subdominant melting to minor. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-272

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-272

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