AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG - Ritmica Ostinata for Piano and Orchestra

RITMICA OSTINATA FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
(1961, revised 1972)

Akira Ifukube at the piano in his Tokyo home

Ritmica Ostinata for Piano and Orchestra is one of Ifukube's most popular compositions. Described as a "minimalist piano concerto," its rhythmic intensity and virtuosic piano passages make Ritmica Ostinata as thrilling as anything the maestro ever wrote.

As the title implies, ostinato (theme/rhythm repetition) is used throughout the work. The form of Ritmica Ostinata can be best described as a rondo, alternating between allegro (fast) and lento (slow) sections. Another characteristic of this piece is the somewhat unconventional role of the piano. More than anything, perhaps, the piano is used as a percussion instrument, vividly suggesting a dulcimer.

Ifukube once said of Ritmica Ostinata:

"'Ritmica Ostinata' means a rhythmic figure that is persistently repeated throughout a composition.

"Japanese traditional music is based on rhythmic patterns of even-numbered beats (an equivalent of simple duple or quadruple meter in western music); on the other hand, the basic premise of Japanese poetry is 5-7 or 7-5 syllables.

"In this composition, I adopt rhythmic motives derived from Japanese poetry and a hexagonic mode (6-note scale), similar to those common in Japanese music.

"By combining those two different artistic elements and repeating them persistently, I intend to reveal our collective unconscious as a nation.

"Strict adherence to those self-imposed restrictions is a reflection of my deep rooted admiration for an aphorism by Leonardo da Vinci: 'Force lives by restriction and dies from liberty.'"

Ritmica Ostinata premiered in October 1961 in Tokyo. At this first performance, Masashi Ueda conducted the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Yutaka Kanai as the soloist.

Masashi Ueda

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