Exercise

Bass 296 — Modulation to the dominant (flat key)

ModulationF major

Corpus id bass-296 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

To the dominant from a flat key: the same pivot, and the ♯ that raises the new leading tone lands on a natural letter — B♮, one semitone up from the key’s B♭.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	F3		A2	D3	G2	G2	C3
Figures			6		#	7/#

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
Soprano	F4	F4	F4	G4	F4	E4
Alto	C4	C4	D4	D4	D4	C4
Tenor	A3	A3	A3	B3	B3	G3
Bass	F3	A2	D3	G2	G2	C3
Figures		6		#	7/#

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

D minor pivots — vi of F, ii of C — and then the figures do in earnest what Stage 10 taught in principle: ♯ over the new dominant raises B♭ to B♮, the leading tone of a key this signature never heard of. The tenor takes the inflection in its own line, rises at the close by way of the inner license, and the cadence lands in C as firmly as if it had been home all along.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Stage 10’s lesson pays its way: the ♯ means a semitone up from the key, so the new leading tone is B natural. Read the distance, not the letter. Carry it into Bb major, C major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-296 — Modulation to the dominant (flat key). v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-296

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-296

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