5.1 Travel around the circle
Study Chopin’s Prelude in A major, Op. 28 No. 7. It never leaves A major, but bars 11–16 move round the circle of fifths: F sharp 7 to B minor, then E7 to A, each chord a fifth above the next. The double-accidentals card prepares later music; this prelude has none. At the keyboard: play neighbouring keys on the circle of fifths.
- Technique
- G major pedal lifted at each rest: a clean stop, hands together
- A major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
5.2 Find a chord on each degree
Study Mozart’s Marche funèbre del Signor Maestro Contrapunto, K. 453a, in C minor: a march in full chords. Name the chord on each beat of the opening bars by its Roman numeral (i, iv, V…). At the keyboard: play the diatonic triads.
- Technique
- C harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- C minor broken triad, hands together, 2 octaves
5.3 Hear an unexpected cadence
Study Granados’s Dedicatoria, Op. 1 No. 1. Follow the singing melody over its triplet accompaniment and listen at each cadence for how V is answered: in bars 9–10 and 11–12 the dominant seventh lands on I6, the tonic with its third in the bass, instead of a firm root-position I; near the end a diminished seventh (bar 22) delays the last V7–I. These are softened and delayed cadences; the card’s unexpected cadence, V–vi, is the keyboard step. At the keyboard: play V–vi and compare V–I.
- Technique
- F major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
5.4 Read the bass numbers
Study Bach’s chorale setting Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille, BWV 511, in G minor. Its two written lines have no figures: in bars 1–4, count the upper note’s interval above the bass and reduce compound intervals. Compare these with the card’s 5/3, 6/3 and 6/4 models; two notes alone need not determine a complete triad or its inversion. At the keyboard: play triads from figured-bass numbers.
- Technique
- G harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
5.5 End on a question
Study Schumann’s Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child), Op. 15 No. 4, from Kinderszenen, in D. Its phrases plead and settle, but the piece does not come home: the last bar stops on the dominant seventh, A–C sharp–E–G, left unresolved like a question. Compare that ending with the perfect and imperfect cadences of the card and with the deceptive cadence studied earlier, and let the last chord hang. At the keyboard: play I–ii6–I64–V7–I, then stop on the V7.
- Technique
- D major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
5.6 Follow each independent voice
Study Bach’s two-part Invention in D minor, BWV 775: the right hand states the subject and the left hand imitates it two bars later. Follow each voice on its own before joining them. At the keyboard: play one voice and sing the other.
- Technique
- D harmonic minor scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- D minor broken triad, hands separately, 2 octaves
5.7 Recognise a sequence
Return to Bach’s Invention in D minor, BWV 775, now for its sequences: find a short figure that is repeated step by step at a lower or higher pitch, and mark where each sequence starts and stops. At the keyboard: transpose a short sequence.
- Technique
- D harmonic minor scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
5.8 Practise dominant sevenths
Study Heller’s Etude in F, Op. 47 No. 9. In bars 13 and 15, hear the dominant-seventh harmony on C resolve to F; in bars 2–3, count the left hand’s double-dotted held notes exactly while its upper notes move. Rest between repetitions. At the keyboard: play I–ii6–I64–V7–I.
- Technique
- F major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
5.9 Carry a melody over broken harmony
Study Grieg’s Arietta, Op. 12 No. 1, in E flat: the melody sings above an accompaniment of even sixteenths that rock between two notes of each chord (G–B flat, then A flat–C flat in bars 1–3) over the left hand’s held bass. Keep that broken harmony quiet and even below the line. The tuplets card shows other ways of dividing a beat; the Arietta keeps to even sixteenths. At the keyboard, read the separate lead-sheet symbols and spread each complete chord through its bar.
- Technique
- E-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
5.10 Improvise an answering phrase
Study Pleyel’s Rondo in C. Learn its opening theme from its structure: bar 4 ends on C (tonic), bar 8 on G (dominant), and the opening material returns at bar 13 before the C-major close in bar 16. Then improvise your own answering phrase to the first four bars. At the keyboard: improvise an answer to a four-bar phrase.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
