The Prevalence of Ostinato in Kasilag’s Works
Lucrecia “King” Roces Kasilag was born on August 31, 1918 at San Fernando, La Union, Philippines. According to Caroline Salido with her written report entitled, Lucrecia Kasilag’s Piano Composition Style, Kasilag has garnered numerous national achievements, including international leadership roles as a composer, researcher, and educator. Kasilag has also composed around 250 songs that fall under different kinds of genres such as dance, piano, vocal, organ, theatre, electronic music, and the orchestra. Unfortunately, only a few people actually know Lucrecia Kasilag since majority of her works remain to be unpublished; Thus, making it harder to find and study her compositions.
An ostinato from Debussy's Pagodes:
Observe the continuous line of notes on the bar above.
In the piano composition style of Kasilag, the ostinato is the most often used musical technique. But what is an ostinato? Dating back as early as the 13th century, an Ostinato is a musical sentence or phrase that repeats continuously. It provides a repetition of phrasal notes in order to unify the composition. Alternatively, a short ostinato can also be an extended pedal tone. A famous example of the ostinato is the French composer Claude Debussy’s Pagodes, the first suite of his Estampes suite for piano, which has pedal tones, repeated ostinato phrases and embellishments which imitate the rhythmic music of the Javanese Gamelan, a gong percussion ensemble from Indonesia. Given that Kasilag prefers the adoption of the sounds of the East in her works, the use of an ostinato is not a rare occurrence in her works which heavily borrows from folk musical genres focused on other musical aspects such as rhythm.
The Javanese Gamelan Ensemble
An example of where Kasilag utilizes this technique is in her piece called Passacaglia. This was composed when Kasilag was granted a scholarship at the Eastman School of Music in New York, which was one of the most notable training grounds for future musicians. A famous work of hers was called April Morning (1914), which is a fantasy-themed piece that was inspired by the work of the poet Angela Manalang-Gloria. One can hear the romantic melody in this composition’s rhythmic ostinato, specifically within the second exposition, and the verse from measures 24-44 in the usage of the F key. These were composed in Kasilag’s earlier life, wherein folk influences aren’t as widespread yet.
An aerial shot of the crater of Mount Pinatubo
Another work was the Elegy on Mt. Piantubo (1991), produced after the infamous and destructive eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Province of Tarlac. The creation of such a piece was requested by Jiovanni Emmanuel Cruz, a fellow Filipino pianist that has also won numerous awards. The ostinato pervaded most parts of the introduction and the brief interlude. There were also two specific styles used: the left hand ostinato and the left hand ostinato with triplets (i.e., being able to play three different notes in the space of two).
Lastly, an obvious example would also be her work “Ostinato” for the violin and piano. The piece begins with a ten-note phrase on the piano that repeats, while the violin elaborates on the melody above it. However, later on, the violin and the piano switch roles in playing the ten-note ostinato, making for a set of variations that allow for the ostinato to remain fresh despite its repetitions. The piece overall, also uses the atypical meter of 7 beats per measure, than the usual 4 beats, creating an ebb and flow of in this particular work, already appending to the Oriental and mystical atmosphere that the pentatonic scale Kasilag uses.
Works Cited:
“Ostinato.” NAU Jan.ucc.nau.edu Web Server, jan.ucc.nau.edu/~krr2/ostinato.html.
“Ostinato (It.: 'Obstinate').” Grove Music, 5 Dec. 2017, www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/ omo-9781561592630-e-0000020547.
Salido, Caroline. THE PIANO COMPOSITIONAL STYLE OF LUCRECIA ROCES KASILAG., 2002.
Image Links:
Excerpt of Pagodes by Debussy retireved from http://brenthugh.com/debnotes/gamelan.html
Image of Javanese Gamelan retrieved from http://shiurousmli.blogspot.com/2016/03/comparing-form-of-tabuh-pisan-and.html
Image of Mount Pinatubo retrieved from https://www.lxv.com.ph/package/pinatubo-aerial-helicopter-tour