Exercise

Bass 314 — Flat submediant deception (second key)

Chromatic figuresG major

Corpus id bass-314 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The same borrowed refusal in G major: E♭ under the bass, B♭ under the ♭5, and the ♭6-to-5 semitone spending the deception the way minor’s own cadences do.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Bass	G2		C3	D3	E♭3	E♭3	D3		G2
Figures				7	b5	6	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	C5	C5	B♭4	C5	C5	B4
Alto	G4	G4	F♯4	G4	G4	F♯4	G4
Tenor	D4	E4	D4	G4	G4	D4	D4
Bass	G2	C3	D3	E♭3	E♭3	D3	G2
Figures			7	b5	6	7

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

Mixture is the major mode reaching into its parallel minor for exactly this darkness: the dominant seventh resolves deceptively onto E♭ major, doubled third and all, and the borrowed ♭6̂ then does what ♭6̂ was born to do — fall its half step onto the dominant. The second dominant seventh keeps its promise, and the brightness of the true close is earned by the shadow before it.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Sharp key, flat borrowing: the ♭5 lowers B to B flat in a signature that was raising F the whole time. The signs serve the pull, not the key. Carry it into C major, D major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-314 — Flat submediant deception (second key). v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-314

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-314

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