Exercise

Bass 273 — The ♮ cancelling the key’s flat

Bare accidentals as figuresG minor

Corpus id bass-273 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The ♮ as the flat-key hand writes a raised third: it strikes the key’s flat off the letter, and the soprano climbs to the tonic in whole and half steps.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	G2		B♭2	C3	D3		G2
Figures			6	n	#

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
Soprano	D4	D4	E4	F♯4	G4
Alto	B♭3	D4	C4	A3	B♭3
Tenor	G3	G3	G3	D3	D3
Bass	G2	B♭2	C3	D3	G2
Figures		6	n	#

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

Where the key’s sign is a flat, the older ♯ and the canceling ♮ are two spellings of one demand — raise the third. This ascent uses the newer hand: the ♮ strikes the E♭ from the subdominant’s third, the ♯ raises the dominant’s, and the soprano climbs D, E♮, F♯, G with never an augmented second. The raised tones belong to the climb, and the signs are how the bass tells the fingers.

At the keyboard

This realization is choral — the upper voices exceed a single hand’s span. The same climb bass-268 made with two sharps, written in the flat-key hand: a ♮ lifts E flat to E natural, then a ♯ makes F sharp, and the soprano walks home. Carry it into C minor, D minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-273 — The ♮ cancelling the key’s flat. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-273

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-273

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