Sunday, April 2, 2017

Ostinatos; making a lot from a little (2. Rite of Spring)

Further to my previous blog entry
If the 339 consecutive repetitions of a 2-bar rhythmic ostinato pattern in Ravel's Boléro (1928) don't constitute overuse of an idea, then what does?
Or, to rephrase the question in a less acerbic way, Ravel's Boléro is his most popular work (according to Wikipedia), yet from start to finish it repeats a 2-bar rhythmic pattern without change or interruption; how does Boléro maintain our interest? Why are most listeners not bored, troubled, or driven mad by the 339 incessant repetitions of this ostinato rhythm?

The explanation is that there are other musical aspects that change and evolve continuously throughout the work, and these are what sustain our interest, such as: 
  1. It begins almost inaudibly (so quietly that, when I worked as a record department sales clerk as a student, many people who purchased the album tried to return it, thinking there was something wrong with the audio), and grows steadily and inexorably over its 15-16 minute length to become as loud as possible at the end; it is a study in how to write an extraordinarily-long crescendo for orchestra
  2. As such, it is a masterpiece of orchestration, filled from start to finish with colour and texture changes that reflect Ravel's brilliance as an orchestrator. The two-part theme is repeated many times, but each presentation uses a different orchestration (and hence a different colour), and the orchestration also changes within thematic presentations as well.
  3. Its form is essentially a theme and variations, and just as in the best examples of this form, our interest is sustained by hearing many permutations of the main theme, instead of becoming annoyed that a given theme is played over and over again. The unusual aspect in Boléro is that the pitch content of the theme is never varied (except for a modulation in the final 40 seconds), just the colour (orchestration and texture) and dynamics. 
  • This idea is not original to Ravel, however; another mono-thematic work that begins quietly and, over the course of multiple thematic repetitions, eventually becomes very loud, is Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from Peer Gynt (1875), composed 53 years earlier.
If Boléro consisted only of 339 repetitions of a short idea, and nothing else, I'll go out on a limb and speculate that the composition would be less popular.  😄

Or perhaps it would have become celebrated as the grand-daddy of minimalism… 😴



Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913) makes extensive use of ostinati, and, more generally, repetitive elements, so today we will look at some of the ways Stravinsky used one particular ostinato, the repeated four-16th-note idea in the excerpt below.

It is introduced at the end of the first section (Introduction) of Part 1, played by pizzicato violins, while a clarinet sustains a lengthy trill (this is at about the 3-minute mark in the YouTube video at the end of this post; all other timings indicated below refer to this video):


It is a pretty simple idea by itself, but its simplicity makes it useful, because it works well with many other ideas. Therein lies one of the keys to writing a good, multi-purpose, ostinato: While good music can be written with longer and more complex ostinati, a short, simple idea is probably more flexible, because it can support a variety of other ideas.

The above excerpt introduces the ostinato somewhat hesitantly, instead of introducing the idea and immediately continuing with almost incessant repetitions, as we found (see previous post) in Boléro. Stravinsky is saving more regular repetitions of this idea for the next section. He is "planting a seed," giving us a taste of an idea that will become increasingly prominent and repetitive.

Sure enough, about 10 seconds later, he gives us a somewhat longer version of the ostinato, which leads to the strongly-rhythmic bitonal (E (enh.) in the lower strings, Eb7 in the upper strings) chord repetitions that are one of this work's most memorable features, which mark the start of the next section, Augers of Spring/Dances of the Young Girls. This starts at 3:20 in the video below:


Incidentally, for those interested in "golden mean" ratios, note that in its first three presentations, the ostinato is heard twice, once, (thus three times so far), and Five times, adding up to eight times, all of which are numbers in the Fibonacci series (1, 2, 3, 5, 8…). Sadly, the next time we hear the idea (see excerpt below) it is only presented four times, which is not a Fibonacci number. 😢 It is used eighteen times consecutively the time after that (part of which is two excerpts below), and this too is not a Fibonacci number. 😭 This is a work clearly in need of a revision! 😎 [Okay, I promise to insert no more emoticons in today's post. The are very useful, though…]
Very soon after the previous excerpt, at about 3:35 in the video below, the heavily-accented repeated chords are interrupted, and we hear the first presentation of the ostinato figure with counterpoint, consisting of an arpeggiated chord in the bassoons, which is itself repeated. Notice that the bitonality continues, this time between the ostinato (Eb7) and the counterpoint below it (E enh.):



This next excerpt, which starts at about 3:45 of the video, gives us another melody, once again with repetitive elements, this time above the ostinato. Note the frequent colour changes in Stravinsky's orchestration of the melody; the reduction below does not accurately reflect this, but there are 6 colour changes to the melody in 6 bars. When you listen to the full orchestra version (in the video below), note as well that the ostinato at this point is buried in the texture, almost inaudible within the heavily accented chord repetitions (not shown in this example, but the chords are the same as in the last 2 bars of the previous example):



New melodic fragments are superimposed on the 4-note ostinato over the two minutes that follow the previous excerpt, one of which is this one, which is again repetitive, and occurs at about 5:25 of the video:



Please suggest other works that make prominent use of ostinati – one such piece is Stravinsky's, L'Histoire du Soldat – and I will possibly (see explanation at the end of this post) discuss them in future blogs… At the very least, I can compile a list with your suggestions. If you can, try to be specific about where the ostinati occur within the work you are citing. In the mean-time, I already have an idea for a third post in this series.



Below is a recording of The Rite of Spring on a video that shows the score. Try to find other uses of the ostinato discussed above. As well, try to listen to it more than once, in order to find other ostinati, and the degree to which repetition of musical ideas is used. If you don't have enough time to hear the entire piece, listen to at least the first 6 minutes; all of the above examples occur within that time.



Explanation of my use of the word "possibly" with regards to doing more blogs on this topic:

My only hesitation is that the amount of time involved doing a post such as this one is daunting. It involved making score reductions in Finale of the sections I wanted to use as examples, saving them as GIFs and importing them into this blog, recording the musical examples, importing them into Audacity and splicing them into sections that corresponded with the notated examples, saving them in two different audio formats (MP3 and OGG) because not all web browsers read MP3s, uploading the audio files to my website, and then inserting the code that lets the Blogger website read and play audio files on all major web browsers. Plus the time spent fixing things that didn't work along the way. Not complaining, mind you! I enjoy doing this, but it is time consuming.

That said, and to repeat what I wrote above, I do have another post in the works on this topic, so there will be at least three in the series, and possibly more if people make suggestions regarding other works with prominent use of ostinati.

18 comments:

Robert Humber said...

Great post Dr. Ross! It's awesome to see that you have dedicated a whole post to arguably my favorite piece! Hearing the Rite of Spring for the first time was like entering a new planet for me... it is so incredibly evocative and unique. I like what you said about simpler ostinatos being easier to throw into different situations. That "Rite of Spring" ostinato just keeps coming back, but it is almost chameleon-like in its ability to blend and adapt into its surroundings. Writing simple figures like that can make me self-conscious because they can seem uninventive. However Stravinsky (and Ravel) prove that it is what you do with the ostinato that matters.

Jack Etchegary said...

To throw some percussive knowledge into the discussion yet again - this is coincidentally another piece that Vic Firth makes specific mallets for! The Vic Firth "Rite of Spring" bass drum beaters have smaller-than-normal wood tips to emphasize rhythmic attack and articulation, much of which is needed in performing the bass drum part of this piece. There is a specific excerpt which is quite commonly asked for in orchestral percussion auditions. I quite enjoy this discussion of ostinati, because as you know, I can be a big fan of repetition (sometimes in unreasonable amounts...) but reading about both the Stravinsky and Ravel have made me think more and more about how to achieve tasteful repetition. I think Stravinsky is successful here much in the same way the Ravel was in Bolero. Although the initial entry idea of the ostinato is different between these two pieces, I believe that listeners to do not grow tired of hearing the ostinato because so many other musical aspects of the pieces are constantly changing and surrounding the ostinato ideas. I think that simplicity and accessibility of Stravinsky's ostinato, as you mentioned, definitely facilitates greater freedom to explore other musical ideas while keeping the ostinato going. Looking forward to reading the next post in the series!

Kristin Wills said...

I have always been fascinated with ostinato patterns. When I first started to write music, almost all of my pieces were based on short, repetitive bass lines. It was a good way to keep my ideas organized, because at that point I had very little theory training. At that time I was also very interested in Bolero, because of how the colours change so dramatically even though the bass line stays the same. I always that thought the modulation at the end was particularly satisfying and that it occurred at exactly the right time.
I think the use of ostinato in Dido's Lament by Purcell is very interesting because of the way the bass line interacts with the melody. The ostinato keeps repeating through the whole piece, but the melody and the bass line are different lengths, so in every phrase, the emphasis is on a different part of the bass line. This makes the piece seem a lot less repetitive than it really is.

Peter Cho said...

One thing that has always struck me about ostinati (ostinatos?) are their prominence in Popular Music. Sure, examples of ostinatis can be found from music from any origin, but Popular Music is chalk full of songs that uses this technique. A standard way of writing a song is to have a "riff" which repeats over and over again and probably goes away for a chorus but then returns for verses. I have always wondered why this technique is so abundant in Popular Music. A possible explanation is that it makes a piece of music easy to digest. If you here a "riff" 100 times in the span of 3 or 4 minutes, it is hard to not understand some at least some of the motivic material of the song. And I think songs like this keep things interesting in two ways:
1. The songs are usually short. Not a whole lot of development happens of the ostinato idea so the length of the song reflects this.
2. Lyrics. Even if the instrumentation or melody is not changed up very much, changes in lyrics provide the bulk of the interest.
However, Popular Music still remains a bit of a challenge for me to listen to sometimes because of the repetitive nature of the music. And on top of that I am really bad at listening to lyrics so I miss that whole aspect of the music.
Sorry I didn't talk about Rite of Spring! :)

Benjamin Taylor said...

This is a great post! I always knew about the ostinatos in the Rite of Spring but never knew the severity and variations of them in the piece! You can also view marching pieces as constant, never get old, ostinatos. More specific would be the Folk Dances from Shostakovitch. He has the tubas on the move throughout the whole piece while adding different instruments like trombone or saxophone to accompany them with variations or off-beats of the same idea.

It seems if a composer can truly grasp a great ostinato and somehow morph, form, and create variations of it, it can be used in a variety of ways in a composition.

Josh McCarthy said...

Interesting post! As you are well aware with my writing, you know that I am quite fond of using ostinatos in my works. So this post strikes a chord with me in a way. I always love reading about pieces I previously didn't like, but then finding something out about them that really interests me in the piece. For instance I had no idea that the Rite of Spring had such heavy use of the ostinato, most likely because it is such a intricately scored piece, it may just get lost in my ear. I feel like this post has given me ideas to help grow my ostinatos in terms of variation and transitioning.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Like Josh, i also did not think "The Right of Spring" had an ostinato in it. When I think ostinato, I often think of minimalism.Many works of giants such as Glass Reich and Adams are based on the repetition and often phasing of interesting motives. A great example of this would be "Clapping Music" by Reich. It seems like throught history the ostinato is something that one cannot get rid of. Composers throughout history employed it. Pachabel, Purcell, Ravel, Stavinsky, and the Minimalists used it.

Pallas said...

What an interesting ostinato. It is rhythmically steady and can easily slip into the background. I'm just wondering if there was any significant connection between the ostinato and bitonal rhythmic section of the Augers of Spring/Dances of the Young Girls. The violins and the top note in the violas form the pitch collection for the ostinato, and the ostinato for the most part stays in the same register (though it is doubled at the octave later on and brought down the octave when it reaches the timpani). Additionally, the bitonal chords and the ostinato have the same rhythmic pulse. Could the ostinato then also be interpreted as a sort of drone, since it does resemble the Eb7 chord initally heard in the bitonal chord section? To me, I hear the ostinato as a continuation of the E (enh.) and Eb7 section rather than an independant idea, even though it was introduced first. However, ostinati are not independant ideas; the Bolero ostinato can't really stand on its own unless Ravel wanted to go in a minimalist direction. I guess my point is that I was wondering if an ostinato could contribute to the creation of a motive, since this ostinato and the bitonal chord section seem to be influenced by one another.

Cassie Woolfrey said...

Within my own composing, one of my biggest challenges I have is balancing not having too many ideas in a piece (as to not make it convoluted or incoherent) and not overusing the ideas I already have (as to not make things boring or repetitive). Stravinsky teaches us a valuable lesson in The Rite of Spring: a good compositional idea is one that allows for variation and flexibility. The idea of planting a seed early in the piece is a valuable tool because it provides coherence by giving listeners something about which they can say “oh yes, I remember hearing that before” WITHOUT overdoing the idea too early. This post has given me some ideas on how to vary my ideas and incorporate them into different contexts. Coming up with compositional ideas is the easy part - turning them into a coherent and engaging piece is the challenge.

Christina Tan said...

It is interesting your presentation of Stravinsky's use of ostinato in The Rite of Spring. I didn't know there was ostinato in this piece nor would I notice it. It is indeed an inspiring way to employ and develop ostinato lines besides just repeating it without alternation. At the end not everyone is an orchestrator as good as Ravel who could repeate the same 2 bars 339 times without getting bored. However I have to say Boléro is definitely not my favorite Ravel piece, and I was getting bored in a concert by the end of it thinking when this loop is ever gonna end, if I dare say... But ostinato is something that I like when I listen to classical music, not only because of the fact that I can catch that "Oh hey that's an ostinato", but also it gives a sense of cohesion and development as the piece goes along. I also like to employ ostinato in my compositions. Thank you for showing some variations that could be applied to ostinati to make them more interesting.

Peter Perez said...

I am a big fan of minimalist music and I tend to lean towards writing minimalistic styled pieces. So reading this has been useful in terms of finding ways in keeping a piece that repeatedly uses a simple melodic idea interesting. I think the point that says that an ostinato in its original form must be relatively simple. If it's complicated in the beginning it will be hard to continually manipulated in different ways in the future. Also, referencing Bolero, there are many other aspects surrounding the ostinato that can uphold listener interest. The dynamics, articulation, orchestration, tempo etc can all be changed and manipulated without changing the ostinato itself. Reading this gave me new ideas on how to incorporate ostinatos and sustain them in a more interesting fashion.

- Peter Perez

Michael O'Keefe-Daw said...

I love a good ostinato! In solo marimba and vibraphone music, composers usually always have some kind of rhythmic ostinato that carries on throughout the piece. Usually 5ths in the left hand hand while the right hand does more busy and melodic lines above. The Stravinsky really reminded me of some of Steve Reich's music. The minimalistic qualities and repetition that evolves and grows throughout the piece. One composer who's music I have played, Ney Rosauro often has lots of these happening. The piece I have linked is a great example of 5ths in the left hand doing the same rhythm for a long time similar to Bolero, in that there is a long long crescendo leading to a big moment.

Rosuaro Sonata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNVw5rWvf_A&ab_channel=NeyRosauro-Topic

I also love hearing ostinatos not change but shift by a 16th note. Steve Reich does this frequently and he keeps shifting it a 16th note until eventually the displaced ostinato ends up back where it began. Its very inspiring to see what great composers can do with one simple rhythmic idea.

Liam Kuhn said...

One of my favourite ostinato patterns is from Clapping music by Steve Reich. Depending how you count it (12/8 or 6/4) the end goal is the same. Performer 1 claps the ostinato at typically in 12/8, 123,56,8,1011 and the other performer displaces the rhythm by cutting off one eighth note or performing the ostinato one eighth note ahead of the first performer. Each ostinato and its displacement accompaniment is repeated 8 times before moving on to the next pattern.

This lead me on to get interested in messhuggah. The song Break those bones whose sinews gave it motion is one of the grooviest metal songs I have ever heard and at the same time the most strange and wonky rhythmically speaking. The drums groove away in 4/4 but the guitars have this almost 12/8 three eighth note grouping pattern as an ostinato through out the main section of the song . I am trying to describe that the main riff repeats a quarter eighth feel until the end of one cycle that is has 7 note scale passage in 4/4 as in +2+3+4+1. Along the way this pattern gets displaced like clapping music and then the first eighth note in the pattern is then played on 1 and not on + after 2.

Two pieces of music that sound totally different and come from different musical worlds but that speak the same language in the end.

Thats pretty cool!

Abigail Jane said...

This is a really interesting post! It's neat to see a breakdown of how the ostinato in rite of spring works. Personally I don't know how to use them well, but I always enjoy hearing an ostinato in music. It makes the piece feel more familiar, and it's always exciting to hear how it develops.

Andrew Dunphy said...

There definitely seems to be a lot of love for ostinatos here. I definitely fall into this camp as well. it's been greatly discussed how ostinatos tend to change, I also find it extremely interesting when a piece (even a long piece) can capture my attention for it's full duration with an unchanging ostinato. I see this a lot in minimalist with composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. In many cases their pieces employ what are essentially many overlapping ostinatos, that start and stop at various points, and build into beautiful sonic experiences, during which I am at no point bored.

I also appreciated the comments made about pop music. I also find it interesting how pop music can repeat an unchanging ostinato so effortlessly with great result. For this reason I find examples that blend minimalism and pop to be a great case study in this. Many genres like indie rock and post-punk make great use of layering pop-y ostinatos like a minimalist composer, combined with good lyrics and some interesting tampers and this creates some of my favorite music, which by design is some of the most repetitive yet effective music I can think of.

David Eguiguren said...

I totally agree! I think a big part of what makes ostinatos great is the fact that human brains can only process so much information at a time, so having a constant rhythm in the back is a little bit like a “brain massage”. If used properly, I think the ostinato tool can add so much more character to the music than what it is complicated in itself. An example of this is the Clave (played by the clave) in Latin American music. This device is always present in some genres of Latin music and when played on the congas for example it adds a colour that can't be recreated with anything else!

Jessica Ozon said...

I don't know if this counts as an ostinato but I think Handel's Messiah is a great example of how effective repetition can be and how much people love hearing the same thing over and over. In the link below, this aria from Messiah repeats three phrases of a single sentence over and over ("Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry moutain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain"), and it lasts nearly 4 minutes. While 4 minutes is not an incredibly long time, the other 2-3 hours of Messiah also treat text in a similar manner; repeating one or two sentences over and over in every section. I must admit that I tend to get bored by hour 3 when I've seen this work performed, but whether you like it or not, there is no doubting that this is an incredibly popular classical work, and many people are willing to see it again and again every Christmas. I think the combination of other factors with repetitiveness makes a very effective piece of music, as it gives the listener something recognizable to hear while also being surprised or affected in other ways. I think, at least with Messiah, listeners almost get the sense that they are participating in the music in a way by being able to predict what's coming next. They hear what they have already been imagining, which gives the effect of one's thoughts coming to life in a way, the same feeling you get as a performer.

https://youtu.be/7NCO6UzZ2R8