The Cantar Mais Glossary is organised alphabetically and its aim is to provide readers with a concise definition in each and every entry, for a quick, but clear, understanding of a large number of musical terms as well as other kinds of jargon typically associated with the wide range of artistic practices and performances proposed on our website, namely on the several songs pages to be more precise.
We have endeavoured to adapt and make each and every entry easy to grasp (or tumble to!), so that the whole glossary may serve as a handy tool for all users, whether or not they are musically trained, for instance; and of course, scientific validity has been kept, irrespective of our deliberate simplification here.
As often as not, our glossary team borrowed ‘a bit heavily’ from Michael Kennedy’s Oxford Dictionary of Music, (Lisbon, D. Quixote Publications, 1994), as well as Tomás Borba and Fernando Lopes Graças’ s Dictionary of Music I and II (2nd and 3rd editions - 3rd edition (Mário Figueirinhas Editor, 1996).
Termo italiano que significa obstinado. É uma célula rítmica ou melódica, um motivo rítmico ou melódico, ou mesmo uma frase musical persistentemente repetidos.
Há composições com “Basso ostinato”, a Passacaglia, por exemplo, em que a linha melódica do baixo, ou a sequência harmónica, se repete ao longo de toda a peça. Também nos Boleros se pode ouvir, durante toda a obra, um longo ostinato rítmico.
Mas, de modo geral, os ostinatos (ostinati) são repetições de motivos curtos, como um motivo rítmico ou um bordão insistente (som constantemente emitido pelas gaitas de foles, por exemplo).