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A persistently repeating musical pattern — melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic.
Ostinato creates hypnotic persistence. Use it as a structural foundation (like a ground bass), for rhythmic drive, or for coloristic effect. The challenge is maintaining interest above the repeating pattern — vary the material that accompanies the ostinato.
Ravel's "Boléro" — the snare drum ostinato repeats unchanged for the entire piece while the melody and orchestration evolve above it.
Ostinato is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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