Motif (music)
In
History
The 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
A motif
Scruton, however, suggests that 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 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".[8]
Any motif may be used to construct complete
Examples
Such motivic development has its roots in the keyboard
Motivic saturation is the "immersion of a musical motif 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 motifs is discussed in Adolph Weiss' "The Lyceum of Schönberg".[10]
Definitions
Hugo Riemann defines a motif as "the concrete content of a rhythmically basic time-unit."[11]
Anton Webern defines a motif as, "the smallest independent particle in a musical idea", which are recognizable through their repetition.[12]
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".[13]
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.[14]
See also
- Idée fixe (psychology)
- Motif (art)
- Motif (literature)
- Riff
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d White 1976, pp. 26–27.
- ^ White 1976, p. 30.
- OCLC 44391762.
- OCLC 21524730.
- ISBN 0691027145.
- ISBN 0691027145.
- ^ Gorlinski, Virginia (2012). "Idée fixe - music". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
- ^ a b Scruton 1997.
- ^ White 1976, pp. 31–34.
- ISBN 978-0-521-64030-5.
- ISBN 0-582-28227-6.
- ISBN 978-0-521-86242-4.
- ^ Neff (1999), p. 59. Cited in Campbell (2010), p. 157.
- ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
Works cited
- Scruton, Roger (1997). The aesthetics of music. Oxford: Clarendon press. ISBN 978-0-19-816638-2.
- White, John David (1976). The analysis of music. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-033233-2.