Exercise

Bass 320 — Unfigured: falling fifths, minor

Unfigured bassD minorunfigured bass

Corpus id bass-320 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

A bare bass falling in fifths through the whole minor key: the circle needs almost no figures — the one decision is where the sharp finally belongs.

The given bass

4/4	bar 1		bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Bass	D3		G2	C3	F2	B♭2	E2	A2	D3
Figures								#

The given bass — unfigured: the student supplies the figures (D minor, 4/4; ⌒ = tied from the previous note)

The model realization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2		bar 3		bar 4		bar 5
Soprano	F4	G4	G4	A4	F4	G4	E4	F4
Alto	D4	D4	E4	F4	D4	E4	C♯4	D4
Tenor	A3	B♭3	C4	C4	B♭3	B♭3	A3	A3
Bass	D3	G2	C3	F2	B♭2	E2	A2	D3
Figures							#

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

The circle of fifths is the easiest unfigured bass in the book precisely because it is a machine: every station takes a plain triad in the natural form of the scale, including the minor dominant and the diminished station passed by contrary motion. The one act of judgment is the exit — the final dominant is a cadence, not a station, and the ♯ marks the difference.

At the keyboard

The three upper voices of the model realization fit under one hand. Six chords of plain fives and threes, all natural — the circle suspends the cadential obligations while it runs. The single figure you must supply is the ♯ at the last dominant, where the sequence stops being a sequence. Carry it into A minor, G minor.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-320 — Unfigured: falling fifths, minor. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-320

Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-320

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