Exercise

Bass 309 — German sixth

Chromatic figuresA minor

Corpus id bass-309 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The German sixth: ♯6/5, the fullest of the three — and its famous trap: the fifth above the bass must ride through the cadential 6/4, or it falls into forbidden fifths with the bass.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Bass	A2		F3	F3	E3	E3	A2
Figures			6	#6/5	6/4	#

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

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3		bar 4
Soprano	A4	A4	A4	A4	G♯4	A4
Alto	E4	D4	D♯4	E4	E4	E4
Tenor	C4	A3	C4	C4	B3	C4
Bass	A2	F3	F3	E3	E3	A2
Figures		6	#6/5	6/4	#

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

The ♯6/5 is not an inverted seventh chord, though it wears a seventh chord’s figures: its fifth is a stable tone with no falling obligation, and the resolution that would create one — straight to the dominant — manufactures parallel fifths instead. So the C holds while the augmented sixth closes outward around it, becomes the cadential 6/4’s sixth, and falls only then. The detour is the grammar.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Play the German chord straight to the dominant once, and listen: the C and the F fall in parallel fifths. Then play it as written — the C held through the six-four — and hear why the tradition takes the long way home. Carry it into D minor, E minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-309 — German sixth. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-309

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-309

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