ABSTRACT
Inverted triads initially occurred as the byproducts of melodic lines in combination, and the idea that a root-position triad and its inversions might be considered one and the same harmony was foreign to composers prior to Bach’s time. To reiterate a truism, music’s second most important melody is often the bass. Against the true melody, this line forms a counterpoint that is to some degree melodic and independent. A wonderful melody with the most imaginative harmonies can be undermined by a bass that does nothing but hop from one chord root to the next. Composers constantly make choices that obey either the melodic force or the harmonic, and perhaps nowhere do the opposing forces do more frequent battle than in the bass. To use the jargon of corporate America, the bass is voice leading’s “multi-tasker.” Any doubling option except sensitive tones may be employed to improve voice leading.
