Chromatic fourth: lament bass bassline in Dm (D-C♯-C(♮)-B-B♭-A) ⓘ.

In music, the lament bass is a ground bass, built from a descending perfect fourth from tonic to dominant, with each step harmonized. The diatonic version is the upper tetrachord from the natural minor scale, 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.

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'."

Lament bass without chromatic semitones: descending tetrachord in a minor: -♭-♭- (a-g-f-e). ⓘ and ⓘ followed by Phrygian cadence.
\new StaffGroup << \new Staff \with { \magnifyStaff #6/7 } \relative c'' { \time 3/4 \key c \minor \tempo "Largo" << \new Voice = "first" \relative c'' { \voiceOne <c g>8 <g' es>4 <es c>4 <c g>8 | <g' d>8 <g d>4 <d bes> <d bes>8 | <f c>8 <f c>4 <as as,> <f c>8 | <d b>8 <g b,>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.} } >>
Lament bass from Vivaldi's motet "O qui coeli terraeque serenitas" RV 631, Aria No. 2
Tonally coherent harmonization from Beethoven's C-Minor Variations. (1806) ⓘ
Passacaglia ground bass in Bach's Crucifixus from the Mass in B minor, based on the first choral movement of his 1714 cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 ⓘ
Dido's Lament chromatic fourth ground bass, measures 1–6 ⓘ

Compositional form

There exists a short, free musical form of the Romantic Era, called complaint or "complainte" (Fr.) or lament. It is typically a set of harmonic variations in homophonic texture, wherein the bass descends through some tetrachord, possibly that of the previous paragraph, but usually one suggesting a minor mode. This tetrachord, treated as a very short ground bass, is repeated again and again over the length of the composition.

Musical works

See also

External links