Exercise

Bass 285 — Dominant pedal (Ponte)

Pedal pointG major

Corpus id bass-285 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The Ponte: the harmony stands on the dominant and waits, alternating its own chord with the tonic six-four above the held bass, gathering the seventh as it goes.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Bass	G2		D3	D3	D3	D3	D3		G2
Figures				6/4	7	6/4	7

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	bar 5
Soprano	B4	A4	B4	A4	G4	A4	G4
Alto	G4	F♯4	G4	F♯4	D4	C4	B3
Tenor	D4	D4	D4	C4	B3	F♯3	D3
Bass	G2	D3	D3	D3	D3	D3	G2
Figures			6/4	7	6/4	7

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

The bridge between one section and the next: the dominant holds its ground while the tonic chord leans on it as a six-four and the seventh comes and goes. Tension is not built by motion but by refusal — the harmony that could resolve at any moment, and doesn’t. At the release the seventh spends itself into the third while the tenor’s leading tone takes the inner-voice license down to the fifth, and the waiting is over.

At the keyboard

This realization is choral — the upper voices exceed a single hand’s span. Nothing progresses; that is the point. Count how long the left hand stands on D, and feel the pull home sharpen each time the seventh returns. Carry it into C major, D major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-285 — Dominant pedal (Ponte). v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-285

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-285

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