The repeating idea may be a
rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete
melody in itself.
[2] Both
ostinatos and
ostinati are accepted English plural forms, the latter reflecting the word's Italian
etymology. Strictly speaking, ostinati should have exact
repetition, but in common usage, the term covers repetition with
variation and
development, such as the alteration of an ostinato line to fit changing
harmonies or
keys.
If the cadence may be regarded as the cradle of tonality, the ostinato patterns can be considered the playground in which it grew strong and self-confident.
Within the context of film music, Claudia Gorbman defines an
obstinate as a repeated melodic or rhythmic figure that propel scenes that lack dynamic visual action.
[4]
Ostinato plays an important part in
improvised music (rock and jazz), in which it is often referred to as a
riff or a
vamp. A "favorite technique of contemporary jazz writers", ostinati are often used in
modal and
Latin jazz and traditional
African music including
Gnawa music.
[5]
Classical music[edit]
Ostinati are used in 20th-century music to stabilize groups of pitches, as in Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring Introduction and
Augurs of Spring.
[2] A famous type of ostinato, called the
Rossini crescendo, owes its name to a crescendo that underlies a persistent musical pattern, which usually culminates in a solo vocal cadenza. This style was emulated by other bel canto composers, especially
Vincenzo Bellini; and later by
Wagner (in pure instrumental terms, discarding the closing vocal cadenza).
Mozart uses an ostinato phrase throughout the big scene that ends Act 2 of the
Marriage of Figaro, to convey a sense of suspense as the jealous Count Almaviva tries in vain to incriminate the Countess, his wife, and Figaro, his butler, for plotting behind his back.
Ground bass[edit]
Applicable in
homophonic and
contrapuntal textures they are "repetitive a rhythmic-harmonic schemes", more familiar as accompanimental melodies, or purely rhythmic.
[7] The technique's appeal to composers from Debussy to
avant-garde composers until at least the 1970s "... lies in part in the need for unity created by the virtual abandonment of functional
chord progressions to shape phrases and define tonality".
[7] Similarly, in
modal music, "... relentless, repetitive character help to establish and confirm the modal center".
[5] Their popularity may also be justified by their ease as well as range of use, though, "... ostinato must be employed judiciously, as its overuse can quickly lead to monotony".
[5]
Ground bass or
basso ostinato (obstinate bass) is a type of
variation formin which a
bass line, or
harmonic pattern (see
Chaconne; also common in
Elizabethan England as
Grounde) is repeated as the basis of a piece underneath variations.
[8] Aaron Copland[9] describes basso ostinato as "... the easiest to recognize" of the variation forms wherein, "... a long phrase—either an accompanimental figure or an actual melody—is repeated over and over again in the bass part, while the upper parts proceed normally [with variation]". However, he cautions, "it might more properly be termed a musical device than a musical form."
Sub-Saharan African music[edit]
Counter-metric structure[edit]
Many instruments
south of the Sahara Desert play ostinato melodies. These include
lamellophones such as the
mbira, as well as
xylophones like the
balafon, the
bikutsi, and the
gyil. Ostinato figures are also played on string instruments such as the
kora,
gankoqui bell ensembles, and pitched drums ensembles. Often, African ostinatos contain
offbeats or
cross-beats, that contradict the metric structure.
[10] Other African ostinatos generate complete cross-rhythms by sounding both the main
beats and cross-beats. In the following example, a gyil sounds the three-against-two cross-rhythm (
hemiola). The left hand (lower notes) sounds the two main beats, while the right hand (upper notes) sounds the three cross-beats.
[11]
European harmonic influence[edit]
Popular dance bands in West Africa and the
Congo region feature ostinato playing guitars. The African guitar parts have drawn from a variety of sources, including the indigenous
mbira, as well as foreign influences such as
James Brown-type
funk riffs. However, the foreign influences are interpreted through a distinctly African ostinato sensibility. African guitar styles began with Congolese bands doing Cuban "cover" songs. The Cuban
guajeo had a both familiar and exotic quality to the African musicians. Gradually, various regional guitar styles emerged, as indigenous influences became increasingly dominant within these
Africanized guajeos.
[12]
As Moore states, "One could say that I – IV – V – IV [chord progressions] is to Latin music what the 12-bar blues is to North American music."
[13] Such progressions clearly follow the conventions of Western music theory. However, performers of African popular music do not necessarily perceive these progressions in the same way.
The harmonic cycle of C-F-G-F [I-IV-V-IV] prominent in Congo/Zaire popular music simply cannot be defined as a progression from tonic to subdominant to dominant and back to subdominant (on which it ends) because in the performer's appreciation they are of equal status, and not in any hierarchical order as in Western music—(Kubik 1999).
[14]
Afro-Cuban guajeo[edit]
A
guajeo is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. The guajeo is a hybrid of the African and European ostinato. The guajeo was first played as accompaniment on the tres in the folkloric
changüí and
son.
[15] The term
guajeo is often used to mean specific ostinato patterns played by a tres, piano, an instrument of the violin family, or saxophones.
[16] The guajeo is a fundamental component of modern-day
salsa, and
Latin jazz. The following example shows a basic guajeo pattern.
The guajeo is a seamless Afro-Euro ostinato hybrid, which has had a major influence upon jazz, R&B,
rock 'n' roll and popular music in general. The
Beatles' "
I Feel Fine" guitar riff is guajeo-like.
The riff from
Black Sabbath's "
Iron Man"
Play (help·info) is characteristic of Rooksby's description: only four measures repeated, played low on a guitar as part of a heavy metal (rock) arrangement
In various popular music styles,
riff refers to a brief, relaxed phrase repeated over changing melodies. It may serve as a refrain or
melodic figure, often played by the
rhythm section instruments or solo instruments that form the basis or
accompaniment of a musical composition.
[18] Though they are most often found in
rock music,
Latin,
funk and
jazz, classical music is also sometimes based on a simple riff, such as
Ravel's
Boléro. Riffs can be as simple as a tenor saxophone honking a simple, catchy rhythmic figure, or as complex as the riff-based variations in the
head arrangements played by the
Count Basie Orchestra.
David Brackett (1999) defines riffs as, "... short melodic phrases", while
Richard Middleton (1999)
[19] defines them as "short rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic figures repeated to form a structural framework". Rikky Rooksby
[20] states, "A riff is a short, repeated, memorable musical phrase, often pitched low on the guitar, which focuses much of the energy and excitement of a rock song."
BBC Radio 2, in compiling its list of 100 Greatest Guitar Riffs, defined a riff as, "The main hook of a song and must be played principally by a guitar. It often begins the song, but is repeated throughout it, giving the song its distinctive voice."
[21]
The term
riff entered musical slang in the 1920s,
[22] and is used primarily in discussion of forms of rock music or jazz. "Most rock musicians use
riff as a near-synonym for
musical idea."
[23] The
etymology of the term is not clearly known. Some sources explain
riff as an abbreviation for
rhythmic figure or
refrain.
[24] Charlie Parker's 1945 recording "
Thriving From a Riff" may have popularized the term.
[citation needed]
Use of the term has extended to comedy, where riffing means the verbal exploration of a particular subject, thus moving the meaning away from the original jazz sense of a repeated figure that a soloist improvises over, to instead indicate the improvisation itself—improvising on a melody or progression as one would improvise on a subject by extending a singular thought, idea or inspiration into a bit, or routine.
Use in jazz and R&B[edit]
Neither of the terms 'riff' or '
lick' are used in
classical music. Instead, individual musical phrases used as the basis of classical music pieces are called ostinatos or simply phrases. Contemporary jazz writers also use riff- or lick-like ostinatos in
modal music.
Latin jazz often uses
guajeo-based riffs.
Riff driven[edit]
The term 'riff driven' describes a piece of music that relies on a repeated instrumental riff as the basis of its most prominent
melody,
cadence, or (in some cases)
leitmotif. Riff-driven songs are largely a product of jazz,
blues, and post-blues era music (rock and pop).
[26] The musical goal of riff-driven songs is akin to the classical
continuo effect, but raised to much higher importance (in fact, the repeated riff is used to anchor the song in the ears of the listener). The riff/continuo is brought to the forefront of the musical piece and often is the primary melody that remains in the listener's ears. A
call and response often holds the song together, creating a "circular" rather than linear feel.
[27]
A few examples of riff-driven songs are "
Whole Lotta Love" and "
Black Dog" by
Led Zeppelin,
[28][29] "
Day Tripper", and "
I Feel Fine" by
The Beatles[citation needed], "
Brown Sugar" and "
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by
The Rolling Stones,
[30] "
Hammer To Fall" by
Queen, "
Outshined" by
Soundgarden[citation needed], "
Enter Sandman" by
Metallica[citation needed], "
Smoke on the Water" by
Deep Purple[citation needed], "
Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" by
Megadeth[citation needed], "
Mind Games" by
John Lennon[citation needed], "
Message in a Bottle" by
The Police[citation needed], "
The Trooper" by
Iron Maiden[citation needed], "
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by
Iron Butterfly[31] and "
Into the Void" by
Black Sabbath[citation needed].
In music, a
vamp is a
repeating musical figure,
section,
[32] or
accompaniment used in
blues,
jazz,
gospel,
soul, and
musical theater.
[33] Vamps are also found in
rock,
funk,
reggae,
R&B,
pop,
country, and post-sixties jazz.
[32] Vamps are usually harmonically sparse:
[32] A vamp may consist of a single chord or a sequence of chords played in a repeated rhythm. The term frequently appeared in the instruction 'Vamp till ready' on sheet music for popular songs in the 1930s and 1940s, indicating that the accompanist should repeat the musical phrase until the vocalist was ready. Vamps are generally symmetrical, self-contained, and open to variation.
[32] The equivalent in
classical music is an ostinato, in
hip hop is the
loop and in rock music is the
riff.
[32]
The slang term vamp
[32] comes from the Middle English word
vampe (sock), from Old French
avanpie, equivalent to Modern French
avant-pied, literally
before-foot.
[34]
Vamps are also common in
video games due to the need to repeat musical themes to fill all of the airtime as a player completes a stage, which can mean an arbitrary length of playtime. A famous gaming music vamp is the eponymous theme from
Vampire Killer, by
Kinuyo Yamashita (also known as the
Castlevania theme).
Jazz, fusion, and Latin jazz[edit]
In
jazz,
fusion, and related genres, a background vamp provides a performer with a harmonic framework that supports improvisation. In
Latin jazz guajeos fulfill the role of piano vamp. A vamp at the beginning of a jazz tune may act as a springboard to the main tune; a vamp at the end of a song is often called a tag.
Examples[edit]
"
Take Five" begins with a repeated, syncopated figure in 5/4 time, which pianist
Dave Brubeck plays throughout the song (except for
Joe Morello's drum solo and a variation on the chords in the middle section).
The music from
Miles Davis's modal period (c.1958–63) was based on improvising songs with a small number of chords. The jazz standard "
So What" uses a vamp in the two-note "Sooooo what?" figure, regularly played by the piano and the trumpet throughout. Jazz scholar Barry Kernfeld calls this music
vamp music.
[full citation needed] This period of Davis' music has also been called
Impressionist jazz, because it uses some of the same musical features and devices as the so-called
Impressionist style of classical music of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.
[citation needed]
The Afro-Cuban vamp style known as
guajeo is used in the
be-bop/
Latin jazz standard "
A Night in Tunisia". Depending upon the musician, a repeating figure in "A Night in Tunisia" could be called an
ostinato, guajeo, riff, or
vamp. The Cuban/jazz hybrid spans the disciplines that encompass all these terms.
Gospel, soul, and funk[edit]
In
gospel and
soul music, the band often vamps on a simple ostinato
groove at the end of a song, usually over a single chord. In soul music, the end of recorded songs often contains a display of vocal effects—such as rapid scales, arpeggios, and improvised
passages. For recordings, sound engineers gradually fade out the vamp section at the end of a song, to transition to the next track on the album.
Salsoul singers such as
Loleatta Holloway have become notable for their vocal improvisations at the end of songs, and they are sampled and used in other songs.
Andrae Crouch extended the use of vamps in gospel, introducing chain vamps (one vamp after the other, each successive vamp drawn from the first).
[35]
1970s-era
funk music often takes a short one or two bar musical figure based on a single chord that would be considered an introduction vamp in jazz or soul music, and then uses this vamp as the basis of the entire song ("
Funky Drummer" by
James Brown, for example). Jazz, blues, and rock are almost always based on chord progressions (a sequence of changing chords), and they use the changing harmony to build tension and sustain listener interest. Unlike these music genres, funk is based on the rhythmic groove of the percussion, rhythm section instruments, and a deep electric bass line, usually all over a single chord. "In funk, harmony is often second to the 'lock,' the linking of contrapuntal parts that are played on guitar, bass, and drums in the repeating vamp."
[32]
Musical theater[edit]
In
musical theater, a vamp, or intro, is the few
bars, one to eight, of music without lyrics that begin a printed copy of a song.
[36] The orchestra may repeat the vamp or other accompaniment during dialogue or stage business, as accompaniment for onstage transitions of indeterminate length. The score provides a one or two bar vamp figure, and indicates, "Vamp 'till cue", by the conductor. The vamp gives the onstage singers time to prepare for the song or the next verse, without requiring the music to pause. Once the vamp section is over, the music continues to the next section.
The vamp may be written by the composer of the song, a copyist employed by the publisher, or the arranger for the vocalist.
[36] The vamp serves three main purposes: it provides the key, establishes the tempo, and provides emotional context.
[37] The vamp may be as short as a
bell tone,
sting (a harmonized bell tone with stress on the starting note), or measures long.
[37] The
rideout is the transitional music that begins on the downbeat of the last word of the song and is usually two to four bars long, though it may be as short as a sting or as long as a Roxy Rideout.
[38]
Electronic music[edit]
Electronic music, especially that of the
dance variety, has relied on ostinato-like bass lines, for example generated by the
Roland TB-303 synthesizer (developed in 1982 by Roland as a "bass-player substitute" for guitarists, but later favored as a bass line synthesizer). Since the 303 also has a pattern sequencer as well and can be controlled to play back at various speeds, it is very easy to create ostinato bass lines with it, and genres of electronic dance music such as
acid house and
psy trance consist of such, created by the 303 and similar synthesizers.
Indian classical music[edit]
In
Indian classical music, during
Tabla or
Pakhawaj solo performances and
Kathak dance accompaniments, a conceptually similar melodic pattern known as the
Lehara(sometimes spelled Lehra) or Nagma is played repeatedly throughout the performance. This melodic pattern is set to the number of beats in a rhythmic cycle (
Tala or Taal) being performed and may be based on one or a blend of multiple
Ragas.
The basic idea of the lehara is to provide a steady melodious framework and keep the time-cycle for rhythmic improvisations. It serves as an auditory workbench not only for the soloist but also for the audience to appreciate the ingenuity of the improvisations and thus the merits of the overall performance. In Indian Classical Music, the concept of 'sam' (pronounced as 'sum') carries paramount importance. The sam is the target unison beat (and almost always the first beat) of any rhythmic cycle. The second most important beat is the Khali, which is a complement of the sam. Besides these two prominent beats, there are other beats of emphasis in any given taal, which signify 'khand's (divisions) of the taal. E.g. 'Roopak' or 'Rupak' taal, a 7-beat rhythmic cycle, is divided 3–2–2, further implying that the 1st, 4th, and 6th beats are the prominent beats in that taal. Therefore, it is customary, but not essential, to align the lehara according to the divisions of the Taal. It is done with a view to emphasize those beats that mark the divisions of the Taal.
The lehara can be played on a variety of instruments, including the
sarangi,
harmonium,
sitar,
sarod,
flute and others. The playing of the lehara is relatively free from the numerous rules and constraints of
Raga Sangeet, which are upheld and honoured in the tradition of Indian Classical Music. The lehara may be interspersed with short and occasional improvisations built around the basic melody. It is also permissible to switch between two or more disparate melodies during the course of the performance. It is essential that the lehara be played with the highest precision in
Laya (Tempo) and
Swara control, which requires years of specialist training (
Taalim) and practice (
Riyaaz). It is considered a hallmark of excellence to play lehara alongside a recognised Tabla or Pakhawaj virtuoso as it is a difficult task to keep a steady pulse while the percussionist is improvising or playing difficult compositions in counterpoint. While there may be scores of individually talented instrumentalists, there are very few who are capable of playing the lehra for a Tabla / Pakhawaj solo performance.
.svg){kind=small}
