I had the opportunity to execute a pun today, when one musician referred to an ostinato in a piece, and another didn’t know what ostinato meant (it’s a rock band, so this can be forgiven).
I wrote: ” ‘Ostinato’ has three meanings. It refers to an out-of-production British car, the ostinato, the most common of which is the Sprite. This is not to be confused with the astinoto, which was a car driven by James Bond.
“Ostinato also means ‘stubborn’ in the Italian language.
“In music, it is a repeating (or stubborn) phrase, such as ‘DA-dum da-DUM DUM DUM DA-dum da-DUM DUM DUM DA-dum da-DUM DUM DUM’ “
It’s a pretty cheap shot, but it was one of the better straight lines I’ve had lobbed at me. The ostinato illustrated in the explanation is from Take Five, by Dave Brubeck.
