By Charles Burns, assistant editor/production assistant
A lament bass is a short musical pattern that moves steadily downward. It often progresses through a four-note pattern, before beginning again, but there are plenty of versions of the lament with more notes or variations in the contour. Listen beneath the voice or melody for a bass line that seems to sink one step at a time. As it loops again and again, it conveys a sense of grief, being stuck in sadness.
Musicians have used this gesture for centuries. The lament bass is a familiar sound in 17th-century vocal music. Composers such as Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi placed expressive, plaintive melodies over bass lines that repeatedly moved downward. Bach later used a more complex, chromatic version in the “Crucifixus” of the Mass in B Minor. Similar falling shapes also appear in folk laments, blues, jazz, rock, pop, and electronic music.
In fact, it’s that spirit of transformation that makes the music on this playlist so interesting to me. The same basic downward pull can sound heartbroken in Monteverdi, restless in Willie Brown, dismissive in Ray Charles’s “Hit the Road Jack” and *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” Led Zeppelin makes it sound threatening and ominous, while Portishead gives it a smoky sensual atmosphere. Gyorgi Ligeti deconstructs the lament into something fractured and modern, while Tchaikovsky expands it into the closing tragedy of an entire symphony.
No matter the genre, or how it is dressed, the lament bass is an excellent example of how musicians adapt and reimagine old, familiar material to suit new tastes and expressive needs.
