0 a musical phrase (= group of notes) or rhythm that is repeated many times in the course of a longer piece:
For example, an infinite ostinato can be expressed in this way, and then used in different contexts that extract only the portion that's actually needed.
This page also contains workings for a supporting ostinato texture in the strings and marimba.
The ostinato was played throughout on bass drum by a pupil.
The piece begins like a round-dance, based on an ostinato of four notes, having a pentatonic - or more precisely tetratonic - character.
Release from this somatic obsession comes only in the last quatrain, when the ascending chromatic tritone figure disappears altogether from the ostinato.
They wanted to add a melodic ostinato but ran out of time.
Within this a number of simultaneous ostinato passages occurred, sometimes independent of each other in everything except phrase length.
Eventually, all that was left was the original ostinato, again played pianissimo.
