: a musical figure repeated persistently at the same pitch throughout a composition compare imitation, sequence
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But nothing has ever come close to the tension that floods our veins at the sound of that immortal two-note ostinato, the signature of John Williams’ suspenseful score.—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 20 June 2025 The varying pace of the ostinato – a musical motif that repeats itself – elicits intensifying degrees of emotion and fear.—Jared Bahir Browsh, The Conversation, 18 June 2025 The slashing up-and-down motto of the first movement had the rough finish of a Bartók ostinato.—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024 Still, the implacably sorrowing three-note ostinato of the symphony’s second movement hints at Ukrainian suffering not only under Nazi occupation but also under Soviet rule, and that implicit defiance is all the more evident when the Kyiv Symphony plays the piece today.—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024 See All Example Sentences for ostinato
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