boogie-woogie

A blues-derived piano style characterised by a driving, syncopated left-hand bass ostinato (typically in dotted or rolling eighth-note patterns) over which the right hand plays riffs and improvised melodic material. A defining influence on Nancarrow's early works for player piano, particularly Studies 3 and 45.

Nancarrow absorbed boogie-woogie from American popular music and used it as a vehicle for his rhythmic experiments: the ostinato patterns, when layered at different speeds or with varying degrees of polyrhythm, create the textural complexity he sought without requiring the sophisticated melodic invention of a concert composer.