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In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, a motif or motive is a perceivable or salient
Salience

Salience or saliency may refer to:* Salience , the state or quality of an item that stands out relative to neighboring items* Salience , relative importance or prominence of a piece of a sign...
 recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the entirety or parts of complete melodies
Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
 and theme
Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. It may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found ....
s. A motif is distinguished from a figure
Figure (music)

In music, a figure is a recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the accompaniment. A figure is distinguished from a motif in that a figure is background while a motif is foreground: "A figure resembles a moulding in architecture: it is 'open at both ends', so as to be endlessly repetition ....
 in that a motif is foreground while a figure is 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." (Scruton 1997: 61) A motif may be harmonic
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
, melodic (pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
) and/or rhythm
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
ic (duration).

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

A leitmotif is a recurring musical Theme , associated with a particular person, place, or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person....
.

A phrase originally presented or heard as a motif may become a figure which accompanies another melody, such as in the second movement of Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions....
's String Quartet
String Quartet (Debussy)

Claude Debussy wrote his sole String quartet in G minor, opus 10 in 1893....
 (1893):

Motivic development, that is, using a distinct musical figure that is subsequently altered, repeated, or sequenced throughout a piece or section of a piece of music, is contrasted to compositional development.






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In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, a motif or motive is a perceivable or salient
Salience

Salience or saliency may refer to:* Salience , the state or quality of an item that stands out relative to neighboring items* Salience , relative importance or prominence of a piece of a sign...
 recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the entirety or parts of complete melodies
Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
 and theme
Theme (music)

In music, a theme is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. It may be perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, separate from the work in which it is found ....
s. A motif is distinguished from a figure
Figure (music)

In music, a figure is a recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the accompaniment. A figure is distinguished from a motif in that a figure is background while a motif is foreground: "A figure resembles a moulding in architecture: it is 'open at both ends', so as to be endlessly repetition ....
 in that a motif is foreground while a figure is 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." (Scruton 1997: 61) A motif may be harmonic
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
, melodic (pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
) and/or rhythm
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
ic (duration).

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

A leitmotif is a recurring musical Theme , associated with a particular person, place, or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person....
.

A phrase originally presented or heard as a motif may become a figure which accompanies another melody, such as in the second movement of Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions....
's String Quartet
String Quartet (Debussy)

Claude Debussy wrote his sole String quartet in G minor, opus 10 in 1893....
 (1893):

Motivic development, that is, using a distinct musical figure that is subsequently altered, repeated, or sequenced throughout a piece or section of a piece of music, is contrasted to compositional development. Motivic development has its roots in the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti , son of the composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was an Italy composer who spent much of his life in Spain and Portugal....
 and the sonata form
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
 of Haydn
Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
 and Mozart's
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 age. Arguably Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
 achieved the highest elaboration of this technique; the famous "fate motif" —the pattern of three notes followed by one long one— that 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," ie, keeping motifs and themes below the surface or playing with their identity, and has been used by composers including Miriam Gideon
Miriam Gideon

Miriam Gideon was an American composer.She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with Martin Bernstein, Marion Bauer, Charles Haubiel, and Jacques Pillois....
, as in "Night is my Sister" (1952) and "Fantasy on a Javanese Motif" (1958), and Donald Erb
Donald Erb

Donald Erb was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and Klangfarbenfunk....
. The use of motives is discussed in Adolph Weiss' "The Lyceum of Schönberg". (Hisama 2001, p.146 and 152)

The 1957 Encyclopédie Larousse defines a motif as follows:
  • "a small element characteristic of a musical composition, which guarantees in various ways the unity of a work or a part of the work (a motif can be assimilated into a cell
    Cell (music)

    In music a cell is similar to a figure or motif .The 1957 Encyclop?die Larousse defines a cell as:The 1958 Encyclop?die Fasquelle defines a cell as:...
    , and can have three aspects that may be dissociated from one another, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic)."
The Encyclopédie de la Pléiade defines a motif as follows:
  • a "melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic cell, characteristic of a musical work."
The 1980 New Grove defines a motif as follows:
  • "a short musical idea, be it melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three. A motif may be of any size, though it is most commonly regarded as the shortest subdivision of a theme or phrase that still maintains its identity as an idea. It is most often thought of in melodic terms, and it is this aspect of the motif that is connoted by the term 'figure'."
The 1958 Encyclopédie Fasquelle defines a motif as follows:
  • "In classical musical syntax, this is the smallest analyzable element (phrase) within a subject; it may contain one or more cells. 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
    Interval (music)

    In music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitch of two notes.Intervals may be described as:*vertical if the two notes sound simultaneously...
    . A rhythmic motif is the term designating a characteristic rhythmic formula, an abstraction drawn from the rhythmic values of a melody."


See also

  • Motif (art)
    Motif (art)

    File:Ajanta Entrance cave 17.jpgFile:TajFlowerCloseUp.jpgIn art, a motif is a repeated idea, pattern, image, or theme. Paisley are referred to as motifs....
  • Motif (literature)
  • Leitmotif
    Leitmotif

    A leitmotif is a recurring musical Theme , associated with a particular person, place, or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person....


Sources

  • Hisama, Ellie M. (2001). Gendering Musical Modernism: The Music of Ruth Crawford, Marion Bauer, and Miriam Gideon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64030-X.
  • Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091366/ISBN 0691027145.
  • (1957). Encyclopédie Larousse cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990).
  • Encyclopédie de la Pléiade cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990).
  • (1980). New Grove cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990).
  • (1958). Encyclopédie Fasquelle cited in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990).
  • Scruton, Roger (1997). The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816638-9.