links, discussions,

and more...

from our chat on November 5th

lament bass / intro to harmony

compose your own lament bass

sound and perception (articles)

loss and musical rhetoric

Prof. Hersch's music

other fun stuff...

lament bass

what do these songs have in common?

let's dig deeper into the tracks you've been listening to ------->

I wish we could have had more time to discuss all of the songs you listened to for the class.

I have loved reading all of your responses - below is a word cloud made from the thoughts you all shared from listening in the chat.

You were all right on the money - hearing the connective tissue of the "lament bass" that unites all of these pieces of music!

so what's on the playlist ?

a little more info about who wrote these pieces of music and when (listen above on YouTube) --->

Feeling Good

Written by: Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse (1964)

Performed by: Nina Simone (1965)

Key: G minor (bass line = G, F, Eb, D)

Ciaccona

Written by: Tomaso Vitali (1745)

Performed by: Ensemble Clematis (2011)

Key: G minor (bass line = G, F, Eb, D)

View the manuscript HERE.

Bye Bye Bye

Written by: Kristian Lundin and Jake Schulze (2000)

Performed by: *N'SYNC (2000)

Key: G# minor (bass line = G#, F# E D#)

Passacaille

Written by: Jean-Baptiste Lully (1685)

Performed by: La Petite Bande (2000)

Key: G minor (bass line = G, F, Eb, D)

***but...it sounds like it is in F minor with a bass line of F, Eb, Db, C because it is being played at A=392, French baroque pitch, a whole step lower than what we use today, A=440

View the manuscript HERE (see page 147)

Hit The Road Jack

Written by: Percy Mayfield (1960)

Performed by: Ray Charles (1962)

Key: G# minor (bass line = G#, F# E D#)

Lamento della ninfa

Written by: Claudio Monteverdi (~1614-1638)

Performed by: Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall

Key: A minor (bass line = A, G, F, E)

View the manuscript HERE

La Blanche Biche

Written by: Emi Ferguson (2017)

**based on an anonymous folk melody

Performed by: Emi Ferguson (2017)

Key: B minor (bass line = B, A, G, F#)

***but...it sounds like it is in Bb minor with a bass line of Bb, Ab, Gb, F because it is being played at A=392, French baroque pitch, a whole step lower than what we use today, A=440

View the manuscript HERE (see page 147)

Music to Watch Boys to

Written by: Lana Del Rey and Rick Nowels (2015)

Performed by: Lana Del Rey (2015)

Key: C# minor (bass line = C#, B, A, G#)

Midnight Train to Georgia

Written by: Jim Weatherly (1970)

Performed by: Gladys Knight and the Pips (1973)

Key: Db Major (bass line = Db, C, Bb, Ab)

Just Give Me A Reason

Written by:P!nk, Jeff Bhasker, and Nate Ruess (2011)

Performed by: P!nk and Nate Ruess (2011)

Key: G Major (bass line = G, F#, E, D)

...we could keep going, adding many more songs to this playlist including...

Bach: Chaconne, from Partita no.5 for solo violin

Biber: Passacaglia for solo violin

the lament bass

a repeating, cyclical, bass line from

one (tonic) descending to five (dominant) ---->

Screen Shot 2020-11-04 at 11.43.30 PM.pn

Musicians took these four descending notes and built (and still build!) harmonies and melodies on top of it.

All of the songs in the playlist use this fundamental structure in someway - thus connecting all of them, from 17th century composer Monteverdi, to 'NSYNC.

the lament bass is usually found in a minor key, but one can also create the same concept in a Major key ---->

Screen Shot 2020-11-04 at 11.43.38 PM.pn

click on the slides below to learn a little more about how all of these songs are connected and why the lament bass has it's power ------->

For example, when I play a Major scale and end on the 7th note – what do your ears tell you should happen next?

You sense this whether or not you have formally studied music before, feeling the pull back to 1 in your bones.

We also feel the strongest harmonic relationship in the scale - between the first and fifth notes. This relationship has been developed throughout the history of Western music and now serves as the backbone of harmony. Wanting to explain the strength of this relationship in other ways, musical theorists and mathematicians turned to physics and the harmonic overtone series.

Within every note are traces of many more notes. Now, you might think that in order to change notes on the flute, I have to move my fingers, but watch.

I will play a low C and and my fingers will not move - by increasing the speed of the air, I first create a note that is an octave above the first one, then a fifth then another octave, all without changing my fingers.

All of these notes exist as part of the harmonic overtone series of our original low C.

The harmonic overtone series exists for all notes, and always unfolds in the same way, first with an octave, then with a fifth. As the series continues and more notes unfold, the strength of the relationship to the fundamental weakens, therefore physics tells us what our ears sense – that like Romeo and Juliet, 1 and 5 have a magnetic connection, one that is strengthened even more when we add harmony, or chords above.

See how we have our 7th scale degree that so desperately wanted to go back to 1 is present in our 5 chord.

Musicians have exploited this relationship for centuries – perhaps you know the following I-V hook.

These are just two examples - you can find this everywhere from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, to the Star Wars theme song.

Sometimes, musicians would fill in the gap between 1 and 5, using the ensuing sequence it as both bass line, melody, and also as the foundation of the harmony for a piece. The effect is cyclical – one of rebirth – we fall from 1 to 5, only to be pulled back to 1 where we start the whole process again.

I’m going to play the beginning of a piece that does just this.

Notice how the ending feels unresolved because we ended on 5.

Musicians are attracted to the simplicity of this sequence, on top of which they could build masterpieces, each time putting their own stamp and emotional twist on the sequence. It can come in many guises, and under certain conditions can be called a Chaconne, Ground Bass, Passacaglia, or Ostinato.

A well known example is Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin where the pattern repeats itself 64 times in various permutations for a 15 minute tour de force of virtuosity. Each time the pattern repeats, it is a little different, and sometimes is in a minor mode, sometimes in a major mode, and sometimes chromatically. No matter how it is altered, we always feel the pull of V back to I.

I want you to feel it though, so if you join me first in a Major key - singing DO SI LA SOL - keep singing. These four notes form the bass line and create the harmony for our first song. Keep that bass line going.

Pourquoy, doux Rossignol. Dans ce sombre sejour, m’eveillez vous. M’eveillez vous avant, l’aurore.

If we change the time signature to 4/4, we can sing some other songs over it that you might find a little more familiar.

Just give me a reason just a little bits enough.
Just to second we’re not broken just bent,
And we can learn to love again.
It’s in the stars
It’s been written on the scars in our hearts,
That we’re not broken just bent,
And we can learn

Because he’s leaving
On the midnight train to Georgia
Said he’s going back to find
A simpler place in time

That place is the 1600’s, Venice, where Claudio Monteverdi told of tragic love with those same four notes – now, in minor.

Amor
Amor
Amor
Amor do’ve do’ve la fe’
Ch’el tra-di-tor
Ch’el tra-di-tor, giuro

In the next song made famous by Nina Simone, we hear the sequence twice, but on the third repetition, we continue all the way down to 2, only to come back to our V to strengthen the end of the verse before it starts the sequence again. See how it changes it.

Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze, drifting on by you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me
And I’m feeling good.

Perhaps you know these other songs in minor

And now for some more minor songs you might know

You had plenty money nineteen twenty two
You let all the women make a fool of you
Why don’t you do right
Like some other men do.

Cause I like you a lot
Putting on my music while I’m watching the boys
So I do what you want
Playing soft grunge just to soak up the noise
Blue Ribbons on ice
Playing my guitar you’re like one of my toys
Cause I like you a lot
No holds barred I’ve been sent to destroy, yeah

Bye bye bye
I don’t wanna be a fool for you
Just another player in your game for two
You might hate me but it ain’t no lie
Baby bye bye bye
I don’t really wanna make it tough
I just wanna tell you that I’ve had enough
Might sound crazy but it ain’t no lie, bye bye bye

Ray Charles made hit the road jack famous, a song that uses the bass line throughout the song.

Hit the road jack,
And don’t you come back
No more no more no more no more
Hit the road jack
And don’t you come back no more.

These are just a few of the songs that use this sequence – and it’s not the only one out there that composers have recycled – each time creating something that no one has said in quite that way before. These sequences have traversed time and space – illuminating the threads that tie us together and showing us, that things might not be so different after all.

In fact, the lines we draw between classical and pop music are entirely of our own creation, as we’ve seen today that classical and pop music use the same language, and like a story in the hands of Shakespeare, that language is fluid and powerful when used well. Next time you hear someone complaining about a 4 chord song, remind them that it’s not what you have or what you start with, but how you use it that counts.

Musicians often alter the lament bass from the original four notes. One famous version is descending from 1 to 5 chromatically like in Henry Purcell's famous "Dido's Lament" ------->

pourquoi doux rossignol

Jean-Baptiste de Bousset

(1662-1725)

played on a Rod Cameron copy of a c. 1700 Hotteterre flute

boxwood and ivory with a silver key

pitch = 392 hz

This is the song we all sang together. It's one of my favourite examples of the "major" version of this bass line. It was written in the court of Louis XIV and would have either been sung or fluted with the accompaniment of a lute (very large guitar). Check out this recording that is a beautiful recreation of what it might have sounded like back then...

view the sheet music HERE

notice how the bass line is notated all the way down in the bottom right corner - this is all the information a keyboard player or guitar player would be given to play with the flute player or singer whose melody is fully written out above.

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 11.56.28 PM.pn

Pourquoi, doux rossignol,

dans ce sombre séjour

M'éveillez-vous avant l'Aurore?

Venez-vous à mon coeur annoncer le retour

Du charmant objet que j'adore ?

Pourquoi, doux rossignol,

dans ce sombre séjour

M'éveillez-vous avant l'Aurore?

Mais si Climaine, a mon amour trop insensible encore,

Abandonne mon coeur au feu qui le dévore ;

Pourquoi, doux rossignol,

dans ce sombre séjour

M'éveillez-vous avant l'Aurore?

Why, sweet nightingale

in this dark abode

do you wake me before dawn?

Have you come to announce the return

Of the one that I love?

Why, sweet nightingale

in this dark abode

do you wake me before dawn?

But, if Climaine is still insensitive to my love

Then abandon my heart to the fire which devours it

Why, sweet nightingale

in this dark abode

do you wake me before dawn?

listen to Emi's recomposed version of

pourquoi doux rossignol

from the album AMOUR CRUEL

in my version of Pourquoi Doux Rossignol, listen out for how I'm constantly changing back and forth between the Major and minor versions of the lament. Can you hear when it changes?

compose your own bass

compose

your own

lament bass

use the following GarageBand files as a place to start ------->

Play the descending four notes of the lament bass on a digital keyboard - sing/hum a melody on top of the bass. Play around with notes that feel like they "fit in" and notes that feel like they "clash" with the bass - find what feels good for you - play around with tempo (fast/slow), feeling, etc. - compose multiple lament bass songs!

If you have a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, download the following Garageband files as a starting point. Play around with changing the tempo, instruments, adding new instruments, and recording a live instrument or voice.

Lament Bass (minor) in 4/4 (Garageband file)

Lament Bass (Major) in 3/4 (Garageband file)

Send me a recording of your lament bass song! I'd love to hear!

sound and

perception

dig deeper into Josh McDermott's study about how people hear sound, Synesthesia, and more ------->

The Washington Post

Music is universal - but the way it makes us feel may not be

Sarah Kaplan

July 13, 2016

The Atlantic

The Surprising Musical Preferences of an Amazon Tribe

Ed Yong

July 13, 2016

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences

Synesthesia: Is F-Sharp Colored Violet?

Amy Ione and Christopher Tyler

2004

Developmental Psychology

Synesthesia: A new approach to understanding the development of perception

Ferrine Spector and Daphne Maurer

2009

Cortex

Synaesthesia: An overview of contemporary findings and controversies

Jamie Ward and Jason B Mattingly

2006

sound and perception

recurring funerary

musical rhetoric

a few motifs that musicians employ to signify loss, mourning, and funeral rites ------->

The Lament Bass

you guys've got this one...

Funeral March

Many composers have written pieces in the style of a funeral march - often using a slow, duple meter (2/4, sometimes 4/4) in a minor key. Here are just a few examples from thousands that exist.

Beethoven, Symphony no.7: Mvt II: Allegretto

This iconic movement (which is used a lot in film scores!) has a steady rhythm throughout - the rhythm of processional funeral drums. r.

You can hear it as ' long - short - short, long - long ' repeated over and ove

Beethoven himself conducted the premier of this Symphony which was a benefit concert for soldiers who had been wounded at the Battle of Hanau - with many thinking this movement was a funeral march for the fallen soldiers. The audience was so moved by the movement they requested it be repeated immediately.

This video is awesome as you can really see the funeral rhythm.

Henry Purcell: The Queen's Funeral March Sounded Before Her Chariot

This piece was a literal funeral march for the Queen Mary of England. In it, you can hear the important role of the drums that, through time and ritual, have come to signify funerary practices.

Frederic Chopin: Marche Funebre

This solo piano piece has become incredibly iconic for it's emotional power. Listen to the steady rhythmic pulse - feel the up / down motion that constantly renews itself - giving the listener of a slow march. Take note when this rhythm stops, and when the key changes minor (doom and gloom) to Major (reminiscent and possibly hopeful).

J.S. Bach's "Sighing" motif

Much of Bach's output was defined by lamenting as he was employed by the Lutheran church for most of his life where we was required to write new Sacred (church text based) pieces of vocal/instrumental music each week. Many of these pieces explore the themes of lamenting in the Christian tradition and Bach developed lamenting musical motifs that run throughout his works.

Bach's "sighing" motif is usually groups of two slurred notes that illustrate musically, the sound of sighing.

Western/European Classical music's Christian Church tradition

Music, as a tool for reflection, grieving, and lament, has been hugely important in the Christian tradition - a tradition that Western/European Classical music was partially born out of and developed in. Thus, there are many "forms" (types of songs / pieces) that are directly related to Sacred practices of mourning that composers continue to use today. Some of these are:

Mass (ex. Josef Haydn, Mass in C Major)

Requiem (ex. Giuseppi Verdi's Requiem)

Passions (ex. J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion)

loss

Hersch music

Prof. Hersch's

work

I have many favourite moments...here's a few to start...--->

We spoke a lot about the physical impact of sound waves, and how our ears, and bodies, perceive them. For me, the combinations of notes - the sound waves - that Michael chooses hit me very physically both as a listener and a performer. As a performer, I mentioned how playing some of the notes he chooses makes my body feel like it is being ripped apart. As a listener, I often feel that the note combinations he chooses align different energies within my body - causing different parts to tense or relax as a I listen.

When I think of Michael’s music from the perspective of construction, the following are ever-present for me:

Clarity of form and intention.

Execution of craft and skill.

His work is searingly direct while simultaneously far-reaching in emotional impact. It is powerful, cutting both like an axe, and like the thinnest piece of paper.

For me, the way that he builds, uses, and creates sound is best likened to the discovery of an alternate dimension. There is nothing inherently “avant-garde” about his writing - but he is able to unlock and show (to me) new possibilities and dimensions of sound that exist within each instrument he writes for - dimensions that go from unseen to parallel with his guidance - as if you’ve tuned your radio dial into a station that you didn’t know was floating through the air all along....

Try to find a quiet space where you can listen alone, without the distractions of your phone, computer, or other people. Pay attention to your body, your breathing as you listen. If you had to paint the music, to describe it to someone else, what imagines do you see, words would you use?

Last Autumn, selections

These selections are some of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. If you like the following tracks check out the full album - it's 2 hours of more wonderful music that takes you on an epic journey! Choosing only four tracks from the whole album was excruciatingly hard!

Images from a Closed Ward

I love this whole piece, but the 13th movement is a real heartbreaker. Listen to both versions - and hear how different they are! I've always thought this track would make a really great pop song...

Carrion Miles to Purgatory

Ghostly, the 8th movement - when I listen to this I get the imagery of constnatly opening doors, in a sort of dreamlike state - things are a little fuzzy, hazy, you can't quite make out the details, but you can feel the differences of each room as you open (and shut) the doors...

Lastly, watch him tear up the piano in a performance of his music with violinist Miranda Cuckson. If you guys can get to a concert where Michael is playing, try and sit as close as possible so that you can feel those sound waves!