Ostinato patterns in classical music?

[ranjit]

I've been recently thinking about using a persistent ostinato as an "accompaniment". It creates a very interesting effect -- you make note of it as it plays in the background initially, and then it recedes into the background, and you get a very striking effect if changed a few minutes into the piece.

The only classical piece that I can think of which really uses an ostinato pattern is Ravel's Bolero. Do you know of any pieces which use ostinato patterns, especially 19th century or earlier? Also, I would appreciate some insight regarding how ostinato patterns are used in classical music, in general.

Thanks!

[musikalischer_wirbelwind_280]

Another ostinato lover, eh?  I'm afraid I'm no expert to provide you with insight on the usage of ostinato in classical music, but I can name a few pieces, or sections of pieces, that I know that use them and to pretty good effect, indeed:

-Monteverdi's "Laetatus sum":

-Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 Op.60 - First movement, the "Invasion" episode. It starts at 5:37; the change at 14:06 always blows me away:

-Jenkins' "The armed man, a mass for peace" - "The armed man". Simpler, but effective; it starts around 0:23:

-Purcell's famous bass ostinato from his "When I am laid in earth":

-Bach's Passacaglia in C minor for organ BWV 582. Another bass ostinato example:

-Soler's "Fandango". (last time I checked, there were still some doubts about Soler's authorship of this piece, but that's a discussion for another thread...). This one pervades pretty much the whole piece, and is one of my all-time favorites:

-"Sumer is icumen in". Time for some medieval fun now

-"My Lady Carey's Dompe". Another medieval example of ostinato:

-Couperin's "Les Bergeries":

-Pärt's "Spiegel im Spiegel":

[quantum]

Handel - Passacaille from Suite No. 7, g minor, HWV 432

If you liked BWV 582, have a listen to the following.
Buxtehude - BuxWV 161 Passacaglia in D minor

Continuing in the tradition of Buxtehude, Bach, and Reger, Willan undertook the challenge posed to him by his frined Dalton Baker.
Healey Willan - Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for Organ (1916)
Passacaglia starts at 4:02

[aclaussen]

If you try composing for piano yourself, you might realize that our hands are kind of limited. It's much easier to embed an ostinato pattern in an orchestral piece or electronic music or some other kind of genre of music, but with 10 fingers on a piano and the physiological limitations of human hands, it's hard.

Imagine a really simple ostinato, like going back and forth between C and D on a simple rhythm. You'd already be using up two fingers of one hand, so that only leaves you three fingers left on that hand. Unless you're doing some really fancy Bach-like arrangments with multiple voices (like a 3 or 4 part invention or fugue) already you are facing limitations. If you chose to finger C with 4 and D with 5 in the right hand, you'd have be limited to what you could reach with fingers 1-3 below C and D. And whatever is going on in fingers 1-3 needs to be playable while keeping the ostinato in time. If you try it yourself you'll actually see it's quite difficult. You could do some cool stuff with overdubbing recordings though, but it wouldn't be a traditional piece you could play by yourself in a recital.

That being said, I too was thinking about this whole ostinato thing recently. The most common ostinato you might see a left hand figure repeat over and over. Like in Chopin's Berceuse or Bill Evan's Peace Piece (which is classical-like).

Not an expert on the orchestral literature so someone else would need to comment on that.

[brogers70]

Here are a couple of my favorites using ostinato bass (from well before the 19th century)

Benedetto Ferrari Queste pungenti spine

and

Monteverdi's Lamento della ninfa the section with the ostinato begins at 1:35.