Motif (music)

Short recurring musical phrase / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In music, a motif Loudspeaker.svg(pronunciation) (help·info) IPA: (/moʊˈtiːf/) (also motive) is a short musical idea,[5][6] a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition. The motif is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity.[3]

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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] Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info) White would classify the accompaniment as motivic material since it was, "derived from an important motive stated earlier".[2]
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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. Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info)
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Two note opening motif from Jean Sibelius's Finlandia.[3] Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info)
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Motif from Machaut's Mass, notable for its length of seven notes.[3] Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info)
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Motif from Ravel's String Quartet, first movement.[4] Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info)
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"Curse" motif from film scores, associated with villains and ominous situations. Loudspeaker.svgPlay (help·info)