Motif (music) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(music)

Motif (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, a motif (pronunciation) or

motive is a short musical idea,[5] a
salient recurring figure, musical
fragment or succession of notes that
has some special importance in or is
characteristic of a composition: "The
motive is the smallest structural unit
possessing thematic identity".[3]

A phrase originally presented as a motif may become a figure

which accompanies another melody, as in the second
movement of Claude Debussy's String Quartet (1893).[1]
Play White would classify the accompaniment as motivic
material since it was, "derived from an important motive
stated earlier".[2]

The Encyclopdie de la Pliade

regards it as a "melodic, rhythmic, or
harmonic cell", whereas the 1958
Encyclopdie Fasquelle maintains that
it may contain one or more cells,
though it remains the smallest
analyzable element or phrase within a subject.[6] It is
commonly regarded as the shortest subdivision of a
theme or phrase that still maintains its identity as a
musical idea. "The smallest structural unit possessing
thematic identity".[3] Grove and Larousse[7] also agree
that the motif may have harmonic, melodic and/or
rhythmic aspects, Grove adding that it "is most often
thought of in melodic terms, and it is this aspect of the
motif that is connoted by the term 'figure'."

A harmonic motif is a series of chords defined in the

abstract, that is, without reference to melody or rhythm.
A melodic motif is a melodic formula, established
without reference to intervals. A rhythmic motif is the term
designating a characteristic rhythmic formula, an abstraction
drawn from the rhythmic values of a melody.

In Beethoven's Fifth Symphony a

four-note figure becomes the most
important motif of the work, extended
melodically and harmonically to provide
the main theme of the first movement.
Play

A motif thematically associated with a person, place, or idea is

called a leitmotif. Occasionally such a motif is a musical
cryptogram of the name involved. A head-motif (German:
Kopfmotiv) is a musical idea at the opening of a set of
movements which serves to unite those movements.
Scruton, however, suggests that a motif is distinguished from a
figure in that a motif is foreground while a figure is

Two note opening motive from

Jean Sibelius's Finlandia.[3]
Play

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background: "A figure resembles a moulding in architecture: it

is 'open at both ends', so as to be endlessly repeatable. In
hearing a phrase as a figure, rather than a motif, we are at the
same time placing it in the background, even if it is...strong and
melodious".[1]
Any motif may be used to construct complete melodies, themes
and pieces. Musical development uses a distinct musical figure
that is subsequently altered, repeated, or sequenced throughout
a piece or section of a piece of music, guaranteeing its unity.
Such motivic development has its roots in the keyboard
sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and the sonata form of Haydn
and Mozart's age. Arguably Beethoven achieved the highest
elaboration of this technique; the famous "fate motif" the
pattern of three short notes followed by one long onethat
opens his Fifth Symphony and reappears throughout the work in
surprising and refreshing permutations is a classic example.
Motivic saturation is the "immersion of a musical motive in a
composition", i.e., keeping motifs and themes below the surface
or playing with their identity, and has been used by composers
including Miriam Gideon, as in "Night is my Sister" (1952) and
"Fantasy on a Javanese Motif" (1958), and Donald Erb. The use
of motives is discussed in Adolph Weiss' "The Lyceum of
Schnberg".[8]
Hugo Riemann defines a motif as, "the concrete content of a
rhythmically basic time-unit."[9]
Anton Webern defines a motif as, "the smallest independent
particle in a musical idea", which are recognizable through their
repetition.[10]
Arnold Schoenberg defines a motif as, "a unit which contains
one or more features of interval and rhythm [whose] presence is
maintained in constant use throughout a piece".[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(music)

Motive from Machaut's Mass,

notable for its length of seven
notes.[3] Play

Motive from many of Bach's

works including the first
movements of the third and sixth
Brandenburg Concertos and the
third viol da gamba sonata.[4]
Play

Motive from Ravel's String

Quartet, first movement.[4]
Play

"Curse" motif from film scores,

associated with villains and
ominous situations. Play

Head-motif
Head-motif (German: Kopfmotiv) refers to an opening musical idea of a set of movements which
serves to unite those movements. It may also be called a motto, and is a frequent device in cyclic
masses.[12]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(music)

See also
Motif (art)
Motif (literature)
Riff

References
1. Scruton, Roger (1997). The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816638-9.
2. White, John D. (1976). The Analysis of Music, p.31-34. ISBN 0-13-033233-X.
3. White (1976), p.26-27.
4. White (1976), p.30.
5. New Grove (1980). cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of
Music (Musicologie gnrale et smiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091366/ISBN 0691027145.
6. Both cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music
(Musicologie gnrale et smiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press. ISBN 0691091366/ISBN 0691027145.
7. 1957 Encyclopdie Larousse cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a
Semiology of Music (Musicologie gnrale et smiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091366/ISBN 0691027145.
8. Hisama, Ellie M. (2001). Gendering Musical Modernism: The Music of Ruth Crawford, Marion Bauer,
and Miriam Gideon, p.146 and 152. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64030-X.
9. Jonas, Oswald (1982). Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker (1934: Das Wesen des
musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einfhrung in Die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers), p.12. Trans. John
Rothgeb. ISBN 0-582-28227-6.
10. Webern (1963), p.25-6. Cited in Campbell, Edward (2010). Boulez, Music and Philosophy, p.157. ISBN
978-0-521-86242-4.
11. Neff (1999), p.59. Cited in Campbell (2010), p.157.
12. David Fallows. "Head-motif". In L. Root, Deane. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press. (subscription required)

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Categories: Motifs Rhythm and meter Formal sections in music analysis
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