In music, a motif or motive is a perceivable or salient recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the entirety or parts of complete melodies and themes. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or In Music, a theme is the initial or primary Melody. The Encyclopédie Fasquelle (Michel 1958–61 defines a theme as follows "Any A motif is distinguished from a figure 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 Music, a figure is a recurring fragment or succession of Notes that may be used to construct the Accompaniment. 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, melodic (pitch) and/or rhythmic (duration). In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of
A motif thematically associated with a person, place, or idea is called a leitmotif. A theme, from Old French tesme, is a broad idea in a story or literary work or a message or lesson conveyed by a written text A leitmotif (ˌlaɪtmoʊˈtiːf (also leitmotiv; lit "leading motif" is a recurring Musical theme, associated with a particular person place
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's String Quartet (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. Achille-Claude Debussy (aʃil klod dəbysi (August 22 1862 &ndash March 25 1918 was a French Composer. Claude Debussy wrote his sole String Quartet in G minor, opus 10 in 1893 Motivic development has its roots in the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and the sonata form of Haydn and Mozart's age. Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (October 26 1685 – July 23 1757 was a Neapolitan Composer who spent much of his life in Spain and Portugal. Sonata form is a Musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical period. Arguably Beethoven 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. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. Ludwig van Beethoven 's Symphony No 5 in C minor Op 67 was written in 1804–08
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, as in "Night is my Sister" (1952) and "Fantasy on a Javanese Motif" (1958), and Donald Erb. Miriam Gideon ( 23 October 1906 - 1996 was an American Composer. Donald Erb (b Youngstown, Ohio, United States, January 17, 1927; d 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, and can have three aspects that may be dissociated from one another, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic). In Music a cell is similar to a figure or motif. The 1957 Encyclopédie Larousse defines a cell as follows "a small "
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. In Music theory, the term interval describes the relationship between the pitches of two Notes Intervals may be described as vertical A rhythmic motif is the term designating a characteristic rhythmic formula, an abstraction drawn from the rhythmic values of a melody. "
See also
Sources
- Hisama, Ellie M. In art a motif is a repeated idea pattern image or theme Paisley designs are referred to as motifs In a Narrative, such as a novel or a film motifs are recurring structures contrasts or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes (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). Jean-Jacques Nattiez (born December 30 1945, Amiens, France) is a Musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of 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.
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