How to Tackle the Figured Bass Mini Assignment
Realizing a figured bass will teach you much about the way voice-leading in
functional harmony works. This in turn makes you much stronger at
performing and composing harmony that sounds good (whatever style you
are performing or writing in).
You might find this difficult to do the first time, but it becomes much easier
with practice.
Follow the following steps...
1.
Write out the whole of the 2-part chorale onto a sheet of blank
manuscript paper. Put the tails of the soprano notes all pointing up. Put the
tails of the bass notes all pointing down. Put the little numbers given below
your bass line. The alto and tenor lines that you write in, will have tails going
down and up respectively.
2.
Use the 'Figured Bass' help sheet handed out in class, as a guide to
what the little numbers in the mini assignment chorale 63 mean.
3.
Start at the first chord of bar 1 and work through. Simply count the
numbers up from the bass note of each chord. For example, in bar 1, you see
'6-4-2'. This means count 6 and 4 and 2 notes up from the bass note given,
(count the bass note as '1'). As the bass note under the '6-4-2' figure is 'E', so
6=C, 4=A and 2=F#. You can see that there is already a 'C' given in the
soprano part, so we don't need to add a 'C', - that's already been done. We
therefore need an 'A' and an 'F#' in the alto and tenor parts. - Write these in.
4.
When you write in your alto and tenor notes, you should space their
notes carefully, so that they sound good relative to the bass and soprano
parts. You space notes by trying them out in different octaves. For example, A
could be A above middle-C or A below middle-C.
5.
In the above example, the figure asks for a 6-4-2. If you look at your
figured bass help sheet, you will see that that chord is a 3rd inversion 7th
chord. That chord comprises (is made of) four different notes. Normally, a
chord in the Baroque will contain only three different notes (a triad). Because
we have a 4-part texture (= soprano + alto + tenor + bass), we have to double
one of the triad's notes. Remember:
i. the best note to double is the root of the triad
ii. the next best note to double is the 5th of the triad
iii. the next best note to double is the 3rd of the triad if that third is a minor
third relative to the root note. (Don't double major thirds, this sounds
too thick).
6.
Where you have vertical soprano and bass notes with no little
numbers, this means that you just use a 5-3 chord (= root position triad [=
root of the triad in the bass]). So, if you look at the first chord to write in bar 1,
you can see you have an E in the bass and a B in the soprano. The triad on
root E (in E minor), is E-G-B. We already have the B, so we need to fill in the
missing G, either in the tenor, or in the alto. Once you have done this, you will
need to fill in one more note. See 5. above for which note to double (E or B).
7.
It's worth knowing that you are allowed to get away with excluding the
5th in a chord. If you sound the root of a triad and also its third, - the fifth of
the triad will resonate on its own without it being played! If you don't believe
me, try this: go to a piano and play the root and third of a triad loudly with the
pedal down. - You will hear the 5th of the triad resonating without you playing
that note!
8.
As you fill in the alto and tenor parts of your chorale, watch out that
you avoid producing our old enemies:
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parallel perfect intervals,
exposed octaves,
doubled major thirds etc.
- Doubled 7ths also sound horrible.
...You should also space the notes of your chords so that those chords ring
nicely. - Try out different options. You will find that spacing your
chosen/required notes if different ways, leads to some chords which sound
better than others.
9.
It's good to do this exercise at a piano, then you can see the shapes
and hear the sounds that your chords are making. You will notice the above
harmonic faults by playing through your chords after you have written them.
The more you play at the piano, the easier it gets! As you play, you will be
able to try out different note doubling options, to see which voice-leading
gives you the strongest harmonic result. You should (hopefully) also find that
as you complete the exercise, your fingers at the piano fall naturally into the
right positions.
10.
Chords sound good (i) in themselves [= resonance/colour] and (ii)
relative to the last chord played + the next chord coming up (= chord
progression via good voice-leading).
11.
When you have finished realizing the figured bass, play through your
whole chorale at the piano. - Does it sound good? If something sounds wrong,
try to fix it while following the figured bass given.
12.
Sometimes, you will see that numbers have been arranged horizontally
rather than vertically. For example in bar 4, you see '8-7'. In bar 8 you see '76'. In bar 9 you see '6-5'. Here, the composer is showing what voice leading
they want sounded. So, if in bar 9 you have your alto part singing the note that
is 6 up from the bass (= note 'A'), then it is that voice which must fall to '5'
(voice leading = 'A-G'). If the tenor was on A, then it's your tenors who will
sing the A-G.
In Baroque times, keyboard /lute /harp /organ players would perform live from
figured bass parts, sometimes with just one, single bass line and some
figures!
We will only be doing figured bass for two-to-three weeks on this module.
FE