Given melody

Melody 4 — Melody descent from the octave (second key)

Diatonic MelodiesD majorharmonize downward

Corpus id melody-4 · 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	D5	C♯5	B4	A4	G4	F♯4	E4	D4

The given melody — harmonize it downward (D 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	D5	C♯5	B4	A4	G4	F♯4	E4	D4
Alto	F♯4	F♯4	D4	D4	D4	D4	C♯4	A3
Tenor	A3	A3	F♯3	F♯3	B3	A3	A3	F♯3
Bass	D3	F♯3	B2	D3	G3	D3	A2	D3

The model realization (D 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 C major, G major.

Voice-leading patterns this exercise drills

Cite this exercise

Gradus Figured-Bass Corpus, melody-4 — Melody descent from the octave (second key). v1.1. https://gradusmusic.com/figured-bass-corpus/exercise/melody-4

Corpus v1.1 · licensed CC-BY-4.0 · machine-readable at /api/v1/figured-bass/exercises/melody-4

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