Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Anyone know this specific harmonic movement in literature ?

I haven't yet Sat down to see where I went wrong. But I found this interesting reference:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lament_bass

This source shows major chords for Stairway: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kurt-ellenberger/and-shes-buying-a-lawsuit-to-heaven-_b_6717680.html

"Summertime" is often played using a downward chromatic bass and it's in many Billy Joel songs.

I would argue that its not the same bass motion you see in piece's like Dido's Lament because the moving voices are not in the bass. As jjo correctly pointed it out its the tonic moving to a Maj 7th (above the bass), Min 7th, Maj 6th, Min 6th. While its similar chromatic movement in one voice its not the bass part. The character comes from the intervals as that voice moves above a stationary bass part.

RubberFingers: Interesting. You could be right on the chords for Stairway. The sequence I notated is how that descending bass line is usually interpreted in jazz. What this really points out is that the chromatic descending bass line can be interpreted harmonically in several ways. Indeed, you'll see lead sheets for tunes like Blue Skies and My Funny Valentine, always with the descending bass line, but different chord notations.