MELODIC & RHYTHMIC OSTINATO

The last movement of Gustav Holst's St Paul's Suite is a melodic and rhythmic ostinato. The melody of an old English country dance called the Dargason, eight bars long, is repeated non-stop, building up excitement and tension. All the instruments have a turn at playing it so that the ostinato appears at different pitch levels - high to low.

MELODIC OSTINATO

In Carillon from Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No.1, a melodic ostinato of just three notes is played many, many times. Listen to this piece and see if you can work out how many times the ostinato is played. Once you think you have it, check the answer here. 

N.B. The excerpt below is two repetitions of the ostinato. Also, the ostinato doesn't occur throughout the whole excerpt, there is a B section (you guessed it, it's in ternary form!)

CHORDAL OSTINATO

Street Corner Kwela is based in a chordal ostinato i.e. the same chordal pattern is repeated over and over again. See if you can identify the ostinato in this recording. Discuss what you can hear with your table.

MELODIC & RHYTHMIC OSTINATOS

Much of the music of Africa makes use of ostinatos. Listen to Induna Indaba (Gathering of Chiefs). It is played by a xylophone orchestra of the Chopi people of Mozambique. Also included are African flutes and shakers.

In this piece, both rhythmic and melodic ostinatos are used. Listen for the various repeating patterns that are added one by one, building up an exciting complex texture. 

How many different ostinatos can you hear?

AN OSTINATO AS THE BASSLINE

When an ostinato pattern is used in the bass, it is called a ground bass or basso ostinato ('obstinately repeating bass'). The ostinato may be short and simple or it may be a complete melody. The repeating ostinato in the bass brings unity to the piece. Above the ostinato, the melodies and harmonies are continually changing to create variety.

Listen to part (1.36-5.57) of a vocal piece, with instrumental accompaniment, called Lamento della ninfa (The lament of the nymph). It was composed by Monteverdi in 1638. This four-note pattern is persistently repeated as a ground bass:

Above the ground bass, the melodies and harmonies are continually varied. The nymph (solo soprano) laments that her love has deserted her. Three male voices (two tenors and a bass) add comments, sympathising with her.

In flat.io (see the assignment on Google Classroom), on your own, or with a partner, choose one of the patterns below (or make up your own) and use it as a ground bass i.e. it will repeat over and over as the accompaniment to your piece. Make the notes any length you like, but keep to a fairly slow tempo.

Above the repeating ground bass, compose varying melodic patterns, or a long floating melody.  Use mostly notes from your ground bass to write your melody so that it works well with the ground bass. If your notes sound like they are clashing, change them to something that sounds like it clashes less. Generally, two notes higher, or two notes lower than the note in the bass will sound the best when writing harmonies but you can experiment to see what you think works. 

Your composition should be 8-16 bars long.

Definition: a melodic phrase in popular music, particularly jazz, repeated persistently during all or part of a piece. A riff is usually two or four bars long. It may change its shape slightly, or move up or down to a different pitch level, to fit with accompanying harmonies.

Watch this video to help you understand what a riff is.

Watch the video below from 1.27 to learn how to play some simple riffs on guitar. 

See how many you can master!