Editing Ostinato (section)

===Late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries===

Ostinatos feature in many works of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. [[Mozart]] uses an ostinato phrase throughout the big scene that ends Act 2 of the [[The Marriage of Figaro|''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. 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.

In the energetic Scherzo of [[Beethoven]]’s late [[String Quartet No. 14 (Beethoven)|C sharp minor Quartet, Op. 131]], there is a harmonically static passage, with "the repetitiveness of a nursery rhyme"<ref>Radcliffe, .P (1965, p.158) Beethoven’s String Quartets.  London, Hutchinson.</ref> that consists of an ostinato shared between viola and cello supporting a melody in octaves in the first and second violins:[[File:Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 69-76.wav|thumb|Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 69–76]][[File:Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 69-76.png|thumb|center|500px|Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 69–76]] Beethoven reverses this relationship a few bars later with the melody in the viola and cello and the ostinato shared between the violins:[[File:Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 93-100.wav|thumb|Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 93–100]][[File:Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 93-100.png|thumb|center|500px|Beethoven Op 131 Trio from Scherzo, bars 93–100]]

Both the first and third acts of [[Wagner]]'s final opera ''[[Parsifal]]'' feature a passage accompanying a scene where a band of Knights solemnly processes from the depths of forest to the hall of the Grail.  The "Transformation music" that supports this change of scene is dominated by the iterated tolling of four bells:[[File:Wagner, Parsifal Act 1, transformation music.png|thumb|center|500px|Wagner, Parsifal Act 1, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTraCEg0x68&t=05m0s transformation music]]] [[Brahms]] used ostinato patterns in both the finale of his [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Fourth Symphony]] and in the closing section of his ''[[Variations on a Theme by Haydn]]'': [[File:Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn, final section with ground bass.png|thumb|center|500px|Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn, final section with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Wm_MFnAto&t=13m15s ground bass]]]