At 9:33 AM -0400 10/13/08, timothy key price wrote:
On Oct 12, 2008, at 5:30 PM, Jane Frasier wrote:
Ostinato
Sounds like a car dealership in Texas.
This thread has not clearly defined the different possible choices:
ostinato, chaconne or passacaglia.
The difference between chaconne and passacaglia may have been clear
to 17th and 18th century musicians (or dance instructors!), but they
are almost synonymous in practical terms.
Are there any substantive differences in these terms? ie. Chaconne
and Passacaglia are harmonic patterns repeated endlessly,
They are BOTH harmonic patterns and ground basses, and this goes back
will into the 16th century. In fact they were notated as ground
basses, and the bass itself implies a harmonic pattern. Monteverdi
often used a 4-note bass pattern: A, G, F, E, repeated over and
over. But some of Purcell's ground basses are quite extended and can
indeed be thought of as melodies, but they are still ground basses
even though more melodic. The 8-note ground bass in the Pachelbel
Kanon is another good example.
and Onstinato is a repeated melody upon which counter melodies may be placed?
Not necessarily a melody, no. In fact much less likely to be a
melody than a rhythmic pattern that is repeated. In the hands of
both Sibelius and Stravinsky that's exactly what it is, with no real
hint of a melody at all. And in the Orff Schulwerk movement
establishing continuing ostinati is a standard orchestrational
method, once again not melodies at all, but repeated rhythmic
patterns.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
