Melody 1 — Melody arc full close
C majorA given melody is harmonized downward: read its arc, find the cadence it implies — the 2̂–1̂ close asks for V–I beneath it — and build the bass first.
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Stage 1 of 17
How do I harmonize a melody I am given?
The other half of the genre: the soprano is printed, and you write the bass, the figures, and the inner voices beneath it. Read the line before you write a note — its arc tells you where it is going, and its close tells you which cadence it is asking for. These eight stay inside the diatonic vocabulary of Stages 1–8.
A given melody is harmonized downward: read its arc, find the cadence it implies — the 2̂–1̂ close asks for V–I beneath it — and build the bass first.
A given melody is harmonized downward: read its arc, find the cadence it implies — the 2̂–1̂ close asks for V–I beneath it — and build the bass first.
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 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.
An antecedent that leaps up, sighs down by step, and stops on 2̂ is asking for the half cadence: the phrase ends on V, open, waiting for its answer.
An antecedent that leaps up, sighs down by step, and stops on 2̂ is asking for the half cadence: the phrase ends on V, open, waiting for its answer.
A leap in the melody is a debt the line repays by step. Beneath it the bass keeps to steps and thirds through first inversions, so the leap stays the melody’s own gesture.
A leap in the melody is a debt the line repays by step. Beneath it the bass keeps to steps and thirds through first inversions, so the leap stays the melody’s own gesture.