Given melody

Melody 3 — Melody descent from the octave

Diatonic MelodiesC majorharmonize downward

Corpus id melody-3 · cite this id — it is permanent

What it teaches

The full descent from the octave, read from above: stable degrees take root-position harmony, and the mediant chord shelters the seventh degree on the way down.

The given melody

4/4	bar 1	bar 2	bar 3	bar 4	bar 5	bar 6	bar 7	bar 8
Soprano	C5	B4	A4	G4	F4	E4	D4	C4

The given melody — harmonize it downward (C major, 4/4; ⌒ = tied from the previous note)

Write the bass, the figures and the inner voices beneath it. Sing the line first; sketch the bass alone against it; add the figures your bass implies; fill the inner voices last.

The model harmonization

4/4	bar 1	bar 2	bar 3	bar 4	bar 5	bar 6	bar 7	bar 8
Soprano	C5	B4	A4	G4	F4	E4	D4	C4
Alto	E4	E4	C4	C4	C4	C4	B3	G3
Tenor	G3	G3	E3	E3	A3	G3	G3	E3
Bass	C3	E3	A2	C3	F3	C3	G2	C3

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

The trap in a descending scale is the seventh degree: harmonize it as the dominant and the leading tone is stranded in the soprano with nowhere to go but down. Harmonize it with the mediant instead — there the seventh degree is a stable chord fifth, free to fall — and the mediant hands off to the submediant in a falling fifth before the real dominant arrives at the close.

At the keyboard

This realization is choral — the upper voices exceed a single hand’s span. Carry it into D major, F major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, melody-3 — Melody descent from the octave. v1.1. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/melody-3

Corpus v1.1 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/melody-3

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