Lament bass

{{Short description|Bassline ostinato}}

File:Lament bass.png in Dm (D-C{{music|#}}-C({{music|natural}})-B-B{{music|b}}-A) {{audio|Lament bass.mid|Play}}.]]

In music, the lament bass is a ground bass, built from a descending perfect fourth from tonic to dominant, with each step harmonized.Brover-Lubovsky, Bella (2008). Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi, p.151-52. {{ISBN|978-0-253-35129-6}}. The diatonic version is the upper tetrachord from the natural minor scale,Ellis, Mark R. (2010). A Chord in Time: The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler, p.200. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-6385-0}}. known as the Phrygian tetrachord, while the chromatic version, the chromatic fourth, has all semitones filled in. It is often used in music to denote tragedy or sorrow.Brover-Lubovsky (2008), p.153. "In the eighteenth century...the lament bass almost automatically invoked somber affection, gravity, and oppressiveness."

However, "A common misperception exists that the 'lament bass' of Venetian opera became so prevalent that it immediately swept away all other possible affective associations with this bass pattern...To cite but one example, Peter Holman, writing about Henry Purcell, once characterized the minor tetrachord as 'the descending ground that was associated with love in seventeenth-century opera'."Thompson, Shirley (2010). New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, p.64. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-6579-3}}.

File:Lament bass harmonized.png: _{{{music|scale|8}}}-{{music|b}}_{{{music|scale|7}}}-{{music|b}}_{{{music|scale|6}}}- _{{{music|scale|5}}} (a-g-f-e). {{audio|Phrygian tetrachord.mid|Play without harmonization}} and {{audio|Lament bass harmonized.mid|Play with harmonization}} followed by Phrygian cadence.]]

{{Image frame

|content =

\new StaffGroup <<

\new Staff \with {

\magnifyStaff #6/7

} \relative c'' {

\time 3/4

\key c \minor

\tempo "Largo"

<< \new Voice = "first" \relative c'' { \voiceOne

8 4 4 8 |

8 4 8 |

8 4 8 |

8 4 }

\new Voice = "second" \relative c'' { \voiceTwo

g2.:8

g2.:8

f:8

g:8 \bar"" } >>

}

\new Staff \with {

\magnifyStaff #6/7

} \relative c' {

\clef "bass"

\key c \minor

c2.:8

b4:8 bes2:8

a4:8 as2:8

g8 g, g2:8^\markup{\italic etc.}

}

>>

|width=400|caption = Lament bass from Vivaldi's motet "O qui coeli terraeque serenitas" RV 631, Aria No. 2Williams, Peter (1998). The Chromatic Fourth: During Four Centuries of Music, p.69. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-816563-3}}.

}}

File:Lament bass harmonization Beethoven.png's C-Minor Variations.Frisch, Walter (1996). Schubert: critical and analytical studies, p.10. {{ISBN|978-0-8032-6892-0}}. (1806) {{audio|Lament bass harmonization Beethoven.mid|Play}}]]

File:Bach's Crucifixus B Minor Mass ground bass.png ground bass in Bach's {{lang|la|Crucifixus}} from the {{nowrap|Mass in B minor}}, based on the first choral movement of his 1714 cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12Blatter, Alfred (2007).Revisiting music theory, p.240. {{ISBN|978-0-415-97440-0}}. {{audio|Bach's_Crucifixus_B_Minor_Mass_ground_bass.mid|Play}}]]

File:Dido's Lament ground bass.png 1–6Kapilow, Robert (2008). All You Have to Do Is Listen, p. 151. {{ISBN|978-0-470-38544-9}}. {{audio|Dido's Lament ground bass.mid|Play}}]]