Exercise

Bass 287 — Tonic pedal — the full stacks

Pedal pointF major

Corpus id bass-287 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The whole neighborhood over one drone: subdominant, supertonic and dominant seventh each stand on the tonic pedal, spelled as full stacks — 6/4, 6/4/2, 7/4/2.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5		bar 6
Bass	F3		F3	F3	F3	F3	F3		B♭2	C3	F2
Figures			6/4		6/4/2	7/4/2

The given bass and its figures (F major, 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	A4	B♭4	A4	B♭4	B♭4	A4	B♭4	G4	A4
Alto	F4	F4	F4	G4	G4	F4	F4	E4	F4
Tenor	C4	D4	C4	D4	E4	C4	D4	C4	C4
Bass	F3	F3	F3	F3	F3	F3	B♭2	C3	F2
Figures		6/4		6/4/2	7/4/2

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

Three stacks stand on the ground in turn, each spelled in full because each is dissonant against it: the subdominant as 6/4, the supertonic as 6/4/2, the dominant seventh as 7/4/2. The chords are well formed among themselves — the seventh still falls, the leading tone still rises, taking the inner-voice license at the release — while the pedal converts all of it into one long tonic breath.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The supertonic melts into the dominant seventh by one tenor step — 6/4/2 becomes 7/4/2 as D moves to E. Over a drone, whole harmonies change hands one finger at a time. Carry it into C major, Bb major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-287 — Tonic pedal — the full stacks. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-287

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-287

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