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The chord is "V6 (i.e., first inversion) in Bb major", and has a "2/4" time meter.

So far I have been able to set up the four different voice parts as follows:

-Soprano: C
-Alto: F
-Tenor: A
-Bass: A

I still keep getting "The last chord has a doubled leading tone" but can't explain why or how, never mind how to fix the double leading tone.

Is there anything I should master in advance to be able to solve questions of this type with success?

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    "Is there anything I should master in advance to be able to solve questions of this type with success?", idk, what have you learned and where have you learned it? The reason I ask is that... the concept of a leading tone is itself elementary knowledge for these sorts of questions. You've tagged this with quartal harmony, even though it's entirely unrelated to quartal harmony; it kinda reinforces the idea that you haven't really learned anything about voice leading at all. Where are you answering these questions, why are you trying to answer them, what is the context here?
    – Esther
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 3:44
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    What is the context here - sounds like a homework question, but someone is telling you what's wrong, but not telling you why it's wrong. That in itself is wrong!
    – Tim
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 8:28
  • Tim, you are correct--I am using an interactive learning software for my music theory 2 class, and this is one of the question in my problem set. Peter, you are correct as well--I figured that since the question is under the four-voice harmony section, quartal harmony would be the closest thing it would relate to on here.
    – aralmariv_1207
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 10:11
  • @aralmariv_1207 "quartal harmony" is when chords are built primarily in fourths, rather than thirds. If this is Theory 2, you should probably go revise your Theory 1 notes, the leading tone and any other necessary knowledge is almost certainly there. If it is not, either the course is essentially incomplete, or there was expected prerequisite knowledge for Theory 1 which you lack; in either case, contact the course co-ordinator.
    – Esther
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 4:50

2 Answers 2

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The note A is the leading tone in Bb major. Since the chord is required to be in first inversion, the A in the bass is necessary. That means that the tenor needs to be changed to C or F.

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  • Aaron--it worked when I followed that extra step and kept the bass as was; I appreciate it.
    – aralmariv_1207
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 10:12
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In purpose of avoiding such parallels there‘s a rule that says the lead tone should not be doubled.

This means - like Aaron says - when the chord is in 1st inversion we have the 3rd = A in the Bass and therefore we better don‘t have another lead tone A in the other voices.

There are even other reasons for not doubling the lead tone from the acoustical aspect!

Another way to solve the problem is to resolve the lead tone in the middle voices down to the fifth: tenor = a–>f

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  • Albrecht--I followed this step and it worked; I appreciate it.
    – aralmariv_1207
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 10:13

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