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Exercise
Corpus id bass-324 · cite this id — it is permanent
Passing diminution in minor: the tenor carries the walking line this time, and the soprano moves only where its block tones stand a third apart.
| 4/4 | bar 1 | bar 2 | bar 3 | bar 4 | bar 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bass | A2 | F2 | D3 | E3 | A2 |
| Figures | # | ||||
| 4/4 | bar 1 | bar 2 | bar 3 | bar 4 | bar 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano | C5 | A4 | A4 | G♯4 | A4 |
| Alto | E4 | F4 | F4 | E4 | E4 |
| Tenor | A3 | C4 | D4 | B3 | C4 |
| Bass | A2 | F2 | D3 | E3 | A2 |
| Figures | # | ||||
The same principle in minor, redistributed: the tenor’s rising third to the subdominant and its falling third toward the dominant each take a passing step, and the soprano fills only its opening descent. One voice at a time carries the motion, which is how real textures breathe — the treatises’ florid examples are never busy everywhere at once.
| 4/4 | bar 1 | bar 2 | bar 3 | bar 4 | bar 5 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano | C5 | B4 | A4 | A4 | G♯4 | A4 | ||||||||||||||
| Alto | E4 | F4 | F4 | E4 | E4 | |||||||||||||||
| Tenor | A3 | B3 | C4 | D4 | C4 | B3 | C4 | |||||||||||||
| Bass | A2 | F2 | D3 | E3 | A2 | |||||||||||||||
| Figures | # | |||||||||||||||||||
This realization is choral — the upper voices exceed a single hand’s span. The alto plays the block unchanged — held tones need no apology. Diminution is not a duty owed by every voice; it is interest distributed where the intervals invite it. Carry it into D minor, E minor.
Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, bass-324 — Diminution: passing tones, minor. v1.0. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/bass-324
Corpus v1.0 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/bass-324