Exercise

Bass 297 — Modulation to the subdominant

ModulationC major

Corpus id bass-297 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

To the subdominant: one ♭ un-crowns the home tonic — the b7 figure turns I into the new key’s dominant seventh, and the old leading-tone voice falls.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Bass	C3		G2	C3	F3		B♭2	C3	F2
Figures				b7

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3	bar 4		bar 5
Soprano	G4	G4	G4	F4	F4	E4	F4
Alto	E4	D4	E4	C4	D4	C4	C4
Tenor	C4	B3	B♭3	A3	B♭3	G3	A3
Bass	C3	G2	C3	F3	B♭2	C3	F2
Figures			b7

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

Sharpward modulation raises a tone; flatward modulation un-raises one. The b7 figure hangs a seventh on the home tonic and it stops being home — C major becomes the dominant of F, the tenor’s B♮ bends to B♭ in the same voice as GVL-041 requires, and the new subdominant arrives in the bass wearing its accidental on the staff. The confirming cadence needs no figures at all: F’s scale is the old scale with one flag changed.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. The tenor tells the whole story in three notes: B natural, B flat, A. The old leading tone is demoted in its own line, and the key it served is suddenly somebody’s dominant. Carry it into G major, F major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-297 — Modulation to the subdominant. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-297

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-297

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